Unresolved childhood trauma is usually the root of all forms of addiction. Yet, what I have learned over the course of my own experience, being a former addict myself, is that it all boils down to the inclination to run away from negative emotions.
So, the key to overcoming addiction is to first of all identify what you are running from. Next, learning how to embrace emotions and stress and integrate them in a healthier way is essential. When you know how to feel properly and listen to what your emotions are telling you, then you are becoming emotionally intelligent.
Can you sit with your uncomfortable emotions in a state of acceptance? Can you live in acceptance instead of resistance? Can you discern what your emotions are saying?
Addiction is created by the often, unconscious need to escape from reality. Thus, facing reality is the only way to heal because once you do, you then don’t need any substances to cope with the emotional storms that life throws at you from time to time. I still experience negative emotions, but the difference now is that I don’t fear fear, I allow it to be and face it head-on.
I’ll give you an example from my own life as to why I used to use substances as a form of escapism.
My grandad suffered from hypochondria and when I was a kid, I used to panic a lot like him. Mum would always tell me that I’m just like her Dad. I grew up with this belief in my perception that I was a hypochondriac. When I finally decided to take my life back in 2010, I was confronted by all these negative emotional complexities and patterns.
It took me about 4-5 years to learn how to do it properly. I had panic attacks, seizures and everything. I even went to CBT therapy due to my panic disorder. Yet this time of healing would have decreased greatly if I knew what I know now back then. But that is just the path I lived and I accept it. Thanks to those experiences I am now equipped to help others who struggle in the same ways.
This is why I wrote my bestselling book, The Labyrinth: Rewiring the Nodes in the Maze of your Mind. Click the Amazon button below to order a copy.
Maybe the hypochondria was passed down in my genes. This is also possible but even science has now proven that changing our perception of ourselves also changes the way our DNA functions. This is the basis of epigenetics – when I changed my own perception, this pattern no longer bothered me.
“Beliefs are the operating system of the cell, and just like computer software, they can be changed to upgrade the system.”
— Dr. Bruce Lipton
If you ever need any help, don’t hesitate to message me. So many of the people I grew up around and I know all over the world are struggling, and dealing with these emotional challenges. But, my friends, the only way out is through.
Many even take their own lives because they don’t know how to embrace their emotions. We must learn how to be comfortable, being uncomfortable. Only then can true healing take place…
Fill the form out below or contact me on social media if you need any assistance.
-Rei Rei
The Future is Now 