We live in an addicted culture. As a modern society we have plenty of distractions that take us out of the present moment. Often we can live rather unaffected by these daily”addictions”, be they food, electronics, alcohol, gossip, drugs or sex. But what happens when these addictions begin to control our lives and negatively impact our relationships, our work and our overall happiness. Proper intervention may be required to break the addictive behavior and bring us back to a place of balance.

Gabor Mate defines addiction as follows: “as any behavior that, for the short term, we crave or find relief and pleasure in, but we are unable to give up despite the negative consequences incurred in the long term”. By that standard, how many of us  have not been addicted to something at one point in our lives?  These addictions can bring us to our knees, but they also have the power to propel our lives in new, healthier directions if we are willing to do the work involved in breaking the pattern of behavior, by examining the root causes.