• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Online Therapy
  • Rehab
    • Alcohol Rehab
    • Drug Rehab
    • What Is Rehab?
    • What Happens In Rehab
    • How Long Does Rehab Take?
    • How Much Does Rehab Cost In The UK?
    • How To Choose A Rehab Centre
    • Rehab Through The 12 Steps Program
    • Does Rehab Work?
    • I Can’t Afford To Go To Rehab
    • Inpatient Rehab
    • Outpatient Treatment
    • Private Residential Rehab Clinics
    • Luxury Rehab
    • Private Health Insurance
    • Private Paying Patients
    • Rehab options for NHS Patients
    • Online Rehab
    • Professional Referrals
    • Can I do rehab at home?
    • Co-Occurring Disorders
  • Alcohol Addiction
    • Alcohol & Alcoholism
    • Alcohol Rehab
    • How to Detox From Alcohol Safely – The Alcohol Detox Process
    • Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms
    • How To Stop Drinking Alcohol
    • Private Alcohol Detox at Home
    • Alcohol Drinks Journal
    • Alcoholism, Addiction And Recovery
    • Alcohol Units Guide
    • Excessive Alcohol Intake -The Health Risks
    • Help For Alcohol Addiction
    • Sobriety Calculator
  • Addictions we help
    • Help For Alcohol Addiction
    • Addiction as a Symptom
    • Addicted to Drugs or Alcohol At Birth
    • Drug Addiction & Treatment
      • Drug Detox
      • Drug Withdrawal Symptoms
      • Drug Rehab
      • Dual Diagnosis With Addiction
      • Cocaine Addiction
      • Crack Addiction
      • Cannabis Addiction
      • Heroin Addiction
      • Prescription Drug Addiction
      • Amphetamine Addiction
      • Crystal Meth Addiction
      • GHB Addiction
      • Ketamine Addiction
      • Mephedrone Addiction
      • Steroid Addiction
      • Narcotics Addiction
      • Opioid Addiction
      • Drug Classifications
    • Addiction And Anxiety
    • Addiction And Depression
    • Gambling Addiction
      • Am I a Gambling Addict?
    • Sex Addiction
      • Porn Addiction
      • Am I A Sex Addict?
      • Sexual Behaviour
    • Binge Eating Disorder
      • Body Dysmorphia
      • Help for Bulimia
  • Detox
    • How to Detox From Alcohol Safely – The Alcohol Detox Process
    • Private Alcohol Detox at Home
    • Drug Detox
    • What Is A Detox?
    • What is Secondary Rehab treatment?
    • 7 Day Treatment & Detox
    • 14 Day Treatment & Detox
    • 28 Day Treatment & Detox
    • Inpatient VS Outpatient
  • Helping Others
    • Stage An Intervention?
    • Help For My Addicted Husband
    • Help For My Wife
    • Help For My Daughter
    • Help For My Son
    • Help for a Friend
    • Help my own addiction
    • Help For A Work Colleague
    • How Do You Help A Loved One Trapped In Addiction?
    • How to stop enabling a drug addicted child
  • Rehab Near Me
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab London
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Birmingham
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Bristol
    • Drug and Alcohol Rehab in Leeds
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Newcastle
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Hackney
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Liverpool and Merseyside
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Ipswich
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Leicester
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Luton
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Manchester
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Milton keynes
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Plymouth
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Preston
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Sheffield
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Somerset
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Southampton
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Suffolk
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Watford
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Wolverhampton
    • Drug & Alcohol Rehab York
  • Blog
Help 4 Addiction

Help 4 Addiction

Drug & Alcohol Rehabilitation

Call Us: 0203 955 7700

Get Rehab Prices Start Your Consultation
  • Online Therapy
  • Rehab
        • Alcohol Rehab
        • Drug Rehab
        • What Is Rehab?
        • What Happens In Rehab
        • How Much Does Rehab Cost In The UK?
        • Online Rehab
        • How Long Does Rehab Take?
        • How To Choose A Rehab Centre
        • Rehab Through The 12 Steps Program
        • Does Rehab Work?
        • I Can’t Afford To Go To Rehab
        • Inpatient Rehab
        • Outpatient Treatment
        • Private Residential Rehab Clinics
        • Luxury Rehab
        • Private Health Insurance
        • Private Paying Patients
        • Rehab options for NHS Patients
        • Can I do rehab at home?
        • Co-Occurring Disorders
        • Professional Referrals
  • Alcohol Addiction
        • Alcohol & Alcoholism
        • Alcohol Rehab
        • How to Detox From Alcohol Safely – The Alcohol Detox Process
        • Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms
        • How To Stop Drinking Alcohol
        • Private Alcohol Detox at Home
        • Alcohol Drinks Journal
        • Alcoholism, Addiction And Recovery
        • Alcohol Units Guide
        • Excessive Alcohol Intake -The Health Risks
        • Help For Alcohol Addiction
        • Sobriety Calculator
  • Addictions we help
        • Help For Alcohol Addiction
        • Addiction as a Symptom
        • Addicted to Drugs or Alcohol At Birth
        • Addiction And Depression
        • Addiction And Anxiety
        • Drug Addiction & Treatment
          • Drug Detox
          • Drug Withdrawal Symptoms
          • Drug Rehab
          • Dual Diagnosis With Addiction
          • Cocaine Addiction
          • Crack Addiction
          • Cannabis Addiction
          • Heroin Addiction
          • Prescription Drug Addiction
          • Amphetamine Addiction
          • Crystal Meth Addiction
          • GHB Addiction
          • Ketamine Addiction
          • Mephedrone Addiction
          • Steroid Addiction
          • Narcotics Addiction
          • Opioid Addiction
          • Drug Classifications
        • Gambling Addiction
          • Am I a Gambling Addict?
        • Sex Addiction
          • Porn Addiction
          • Am I A Sex Addict?
          • Sexual Behaviour
        • Binge Eating Disorder
          • Body Dysmorphia
          • Help for Bulimia
  • Detox
        • How to Detox From Alcohol Safely – The Alcohol Detox Process
        • Private Alcohol Detox at Home
        • Drug Detox
        • What Is A Detox?
        • What is Secondary Rehab treatment?
        • 7 Day Treatment & Detox
        • 14 Day Treatment & Detox
        • 28 Day Treatment & Detox
        • Inpatient VS Outpatient
  • Helping Others
        • Stage An Intervention?
        • Help For My Addicted Husband
        • Help For My Wife
        • Help For My Daughter
        • Help For My Son
        • Help for a Friend
        • Help my own addiction
        • Help For A Work Colleague
        • How Do You Help A Loved One Trapped In Addiction?
        • How to stop enabling a drug addicted child
  • Rehab Near Me
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab London
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Birmingham
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Bristol
        • Drug and Alcohol Rehab in Leeds
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Newcastle
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Hackney
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab in Liverpool and Merseyside
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Ipswich
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Leicester
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Luton
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Manchester
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Milton keynes
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Plymouth
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Preston
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Sheffield
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Somerset
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Southampton
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Suffolk
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Watford
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab Wolverhampton
        • Drug & Alcohol Rehab York
  • Blog

An Alternative Approach

2nd April 2018 by Nick Conn

DON’T PANIC he says, in large friendly letters

In a minute I’m going to use a word that will almost certainly bring all sorts of images to mind. Pictures of earnest, angst-ridden European arty types wearing black roll neck sweaters and discussing Life, Death, The Universe and Everything in dingy Parisian cafés against a backdrop of Gauloises smoke, absinth – and possibly even apricot cocktails (a favourite, apparently).

Whilst existentialism may have picked up quite a few stereotypes along the way, this branch of philosophy can help us find clarity and solutions, especially at a time when over half of the UK population identifies as ‘none’ regarding faith. Rather than offering the comfort and certainty of religion with answers which cannot be questioned, existentialism is concerned with addressing questions regarding what it is to be human, especially regarding our freedom.

Whilst these questions may never be answered, the search is itself a journey of development that can lead us down fresh paths rather than fixed tracks laid down by others, we can embrace our autonomy, rather than abdicating from it.

Existential psychotherapy has been described (Deurzen and Kenward, 2005) as having the aim to ‘clarify, reflect upon and understand life as each person in practice experiences it in order to overcome particular problems or resolve dilemmas’. In other words, rather than an ethereal search for deep overall meaning, or an academical joust between different hypothetical perspectives, existential therapy is concerned with how we cope with the underlying truths of our lives.

There are therapies which start with the early years and attachment, particularly maternal (‘if it’s not one thing, it’s the mother…’) and which assume that our life script is fixed in our early years – that by about six years old we have decided subconsciously who we are and how our lives will play out. Such approaches can point to the effect of both nature and nurture, apples not falling far from the tree and all that.

It makes sense to assume that a wall will follow the contours of the foundations as it rises. To follow the building metaphor, if a crack appears then it is probably wishful thinking to just paper over it and assumes ‘job done’. Better to trace it back down and find the cause – a failed lintel, or something wrong with the foundations? My experience so far suggests that substance use is often best regarded as a symptom rather than a cause, and that progress will come from working on the cause rather than a focus on controlling the effect – but that this may not require psychological archaeology.

As with a general Humanist approach, existentialism accepts that we are able to make changes in our lives, that we can seek to discover our true goals in life and move purposefully towards them. In contrast to some of the overly enthusiastic perspectives which seem more in tune with self-help seminars, an existentialist view accepts that our lives will have limits, boundaries and restrictions beyond which we cannot go. Attempt to run through a minefield with little more than a positive, ‘can do’ attitude, and we’ll certainly go up in the world but perhaps not in the way we want. As someone who was very nearly thrown out of a seminar for saying that I wanted to be ‘President of the U.S.A by Friday’ in response to a claim by the speaker that we could be anyone we wanted to be, this more pragmatic acceptance of the realities of life greatly appeals.

This acceptance also extends to a realisation that life – for most of anyway – bears little relationship to the works of Disney or Mills & Boone. Nietzsche propose that we should learn to love our fate (‘amor fati’), finding joy in this acceptance of the inevitable. It is certainly possible to create an alternative reality around ourselves, to construct a web of delusions, discounts and denials and don a pair of industrial strength rose-tinted goggles, and this will indeed make the intolerable tolerable – in the same that emotionally shutting down, or addictions do. All these approaches, however, keep us stuck where we really don’t want to be. If the airline takes us to Alaska by mistake, instead of the anticipated sun-drenched beach, do we say ‘mustn’t grumble’ and make the best of it, or do we kick up merry hell and get to where we want to be?

Socrates believed that a reflected life was not worth living, by looking deeply into ourselves, challenging our perceptions and discovering who we really are and who we wish to become it becomes possible to achieve an enlightenment and then liberation. Kierkegaard thought that we should tackle the difficult issues in life by not avoiding anxiety and despair but instead acknowledging and accepting them – looking them fully in the face and deciding to live life fully and honestly. Take the vinegar out of a sweet and sour sauce and it becomes sickly sweet, life needs both Ying and Yang.

Where anxiety can be seen as an illness – something to be avoided, measured and treated (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has 46 pages covering over 20 types), existential therapy looks not at the normal meaning of worry, but rather the feeling of angst that comes from this head-on recognition, the dizziness that comes not only from an awareness of our own mortality but also the recognition of the freedoms we still have to make decisions. Rather than either a medical or psychological approach, existential therapy draws on philosophy with the aim to ‘clarify, reflect upon and understand life…to gain mastery over the art of living, so that life’s challenges can be welcomed and enjoyed instead of feared and avoided’ (Deurzen 2012). Existential therapists do not offer set ways of living life, a hope that a positive attitude will conquer all or a warm cocoon of escape from reality. The work is instead a focus on the reality of clients’ lives, an awareness of their limitations as well as a discovery of their strengths and desired destination. The aim is to achieve authentic living, defined by Jaspers as ‘becoming oneself whilst suffering defeat.’

If you would like to read more, may I suggest ‘Existential Counselling & Psychotherapy in Practice’ by Emmy van Deurzen, 2012

 

Paul Hurst

Filed Under: Latest News

Sharing is Caring

Primary Sidebar

  • FREE CALLBACK SERVICE

    We offer a free
    callback service 24/7

    Simply enter your number below
    and our addiction counsellors will call
    you back in a few minutes.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Related Articles

Addictive Behaviours and You

27th February 2020 By Dipesh

Tips for Overcoming Feelings of Powerlessness In Addiction

17th January 2020 By Dipesh

sex-addiction-cover

Self-Care for Spouses: Dealing with Addiction

20th November 2019 By Dipesh Leave a Comment

Naloxone

Naloxone for Opioid Addiction – Is it worth it?

15th November 2019 By Dipesh

Coping Tactics when Recovering from Drug and Alcohol Addiction

5th November 2019 By Dipesh

Tags

Birmingham Brighton Bromley Bushey Cambridge Cheshire Congleton Devon - Cullompton Devon - Paignton Devon - Plymouth Essex - Brentwood Essex - Romford Hemel Hempstead Hertford Hoddesdon Hove Kent - Goudhurst Kent - Tunbridge Wells Leicestershire London - Finsbury Circus London-Maida Vale London - Paddington Radlett rehab Sheffield Skype Staffordshire Staffordshire Moorlands Stoke On Trent Surrey - Farnham Surrey - Fetcham Wakefield Wales - Neath Wales - Swansea Watford Worcester

We work with all the major insurers

Footer

Get Help Now

  • Phone 0203 955 7700 or enter your phone number and get a call back.

    FREE CALL BACK SERVICE 24/7

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

About Us

Our experienced team at Help4addiction are always on hand to offer you the most personal and cost effective options available for Alcohol and Drug addiction treatment

0203 955 7700
support@help4addiction.co.uk

Additional Links

  • Private Residential Rehab Clinics
  • Alcohol Addiction
  • Alcohol Rehab & Addiction Treatment
  • Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms
  • Online Therapy
  • Detox from Home

Get Help Now

  • Phone 0203 955 7700 or enter your phone number and get a call back.

    FREE CALL BACK SERVICE 24/7

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Help 4 Addiction, The Pharmacy,
Battlers Green Farm,
Common Lane, Radlett,
Hertfordshire, WD7 7PH

© 2021 Help 4 Addiction. All Rights Reserved.

  • Privacy
  • Terms & Conditions
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT