Alcohol abuse

The first thing I ask clients is:

Do you want to cut down – or do you want to give up?

The majority of people just want to cut their drinking down to a ‘normal’ level i.e. somewhere around the weekly guidelines as recommended by the NHS: 14 units for both women and men.

Also, by drinking, what are you trying to avoid, what are you trying to ‘escape’ from?

Addictions and Anxiety

In my opinion, Addictions, whether they involve Alcohol, Drugs, Gambling, Chocolate etc are simply masking symptoms of Anxiety. Anxiety is not an emotion - it is an over-stimulation of the nervous system. caused by negative memories. often traumatic in nature which have not been processed by the subconscious mind. Emotions which run alongside such as Anger, Guilt, Sadness etc lead to underlying thoughts and feelings (the ‘chattering mind’).

For more on this – see my web page on Anxiety.

Much of this negative energy lies below conscious awareness i.e. it is of the subconscious. When it is triggered, our anxiety ramps up, and we are into the fight or flight cycle (the stress response) To deal with this, to satiate it, we may turn to substances such as Alcohol. This does not deal with the cause and only masks the symptom. Alcohol is also addictive because of its chemical effects on the brain. We therefore find ourselves caught up in a cycle of negative, repetitive dysfunctional behaviour. As a result, we are not in control.

Effective control of alcohol intake

My aim is to empower you and give you back control of your drinking habit, rather than you drinking habit controlling you. This will enable you to cut down: or give up entirely. To do this we look at the reasons behind your drinking. Whilst cravings are completely natural, when these are beyond your control, we have an addictive behaviour. Underlying any addiction is anxiety. This anxiety may be on a conscious or unconscious level. I will work with you to get to the root cause of the presenting problem (anxiety) deal with the symptom (drinking).

Putting you back in Control.

Hypnosis and other strategic interventions such as IEMT (Integral Eye Movement Therapy) and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) can help resolve the core feelings that are driving your drinking. I will also teach you coping strategies to deal with your anxiety to help reduce the addictive cravings you have for alcohol, bringing them down to a manageable level. The synergy between these and other powerful interventions mean you can achieve control of your relationship with alcohol.