Well-being
6 back to school lunches! 🫛🥕🌽
6 lunch recipes for everyone to get the new school year off to a healthy start!
How can you recognize an addiction and regain a lasting balance?
Screen use, alcohol or substance abuse, shopping, online gaming, sexuality, taking medication ... These behaviors, which may seem trivial, when they become repetitive, uncontrollable and cause distress, could lead to addiction.
How can you tell if you're in a situation of dependence? What are the signs to look out for? And what solutions exist to help you regain control of your life, at your own pace?
Understanding Addiction
Addiction occurs when someone develops a problematic relationship with a substance or behavior, to the point that it becomes an overwhelming part of their life.
About one in five Canadians will experience a substance use disorder at some point in their lifetime. Alcohol remains the most commonly used substance, with nearly 20% of adults reporting problematic use.
But addiction is not limited to substances: so-called behavioral addictions are increasingly common and are now recognized as major public health concerns.
Addiction is still often associated with stereotypes—such as poverty, total loss of control, or marginalization—which can delay awareness and access to specialized help. Breaking down these misconceptions is therefore essential to help everyone better prevent, identify, understand, take action, and seek support.
Addiction is not always dramatic or obvious to others: most people remain active and function in their daily lives, yet are caught in a vicious cycle of temporary relief, obsessive cravings, and loss of control.
There are two main types of addiction:
Dependencies on psychoactive substances: tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, illicit drugs, or certain medications such as opioids.
Behavioral addictions that is, addictions that do not involve substance use—include gambling, video games, social media, compulsive shopping, hypersexuality, work, exercise, emotional dependence, and eating disorders, among others.
Addiction is characterized by several key mechanisms:
Obsessive cravings to repeat the behavior or consume the substance.
Loss of control: even when aware of the problem or attempting to cut back, the person engages in it more frequently than intended.
Persistence despite negative consequences, such as harm to health, relationships, work, or finances.
It's not a question of a lack of willpower or a simple "bad choice": addiction is a conditioning process and is recognized as a mental health disorder, affecting brain circuits linked to the reward system, emotional regulation, memory, concentration and motivation. It therefore requires appropriate, specialized treatment.
The Addiction Cycle
Most addictive behaviors develop gradually. Over time, they take on a role beyond simple pleasure. Some people turn to them to ease anxiety, others to relieve suffering, or to boost their energy.
In these cases, an avoidance or emotional compensation mechanism takes hold. The brain learns that the behavior brings relief, but as the effect wears off, the need grows stronger. The person begins to face increasingly harmful consequences, feels guilty about the excess, and compulsively returns to the behavior in search of temporary relief. This is how a person becomes trapped in a vicious cycle—known as the cycle of addiction.
When does dependency become a cause for concern?
The greater the impact on daily life, the more worrying the dependency. The impact can be:
- physiological : sleep disorders, chronic fatigue, health problems ;
- psychological : anxiety, irritability, depression;
- familial and relational : conflicts, isolation ;
- professional : reduced performance, absenteeism ;
- financial : debts, uncontrolled spending;
- legal : offences related to the use of addictive behavior.
The role of the brain and the reward system
The brain uses a "reward system" to induce us to engage in self-beneficial behaviors, such as eating, socializing or having sex. These pleasurable experiences trigger the release of dopamine, a key neurotransmitter of pleasure and motivation.
With addictive substances or behaviors, this release is amplified. The brain, saturated, then reduces its natural production of dopamine, making pleasure harder to achieve. This can lead to irritability, withdrawal and craving.
This disruption of the reward system explains why some people lock themselves into a long-lasting and severe dependency.
Addiction: 6 questions to take stock
When you start to wonder about a particular behavior, it can be useful to take stock of the situation with yourself.
The following 6 questions are not intended to provide a diagnosis, but to help you reflect on your relationship with certain behaviors:
- Is a habit taking up a lot of space in your daily life (gaming, social networking, alcohol, etc.)?
- Have you noticed any consequences for your health or your personal, social, financial, marital or professional life?
- Do you experience strong or uncontrollable cravings linked to this behavior (compulsions)?
- Do you feel guilty after giving in to it?
- Do you identify any triggering emotions or situations?
- Do you feel you resort to it more often than you'd like?
If the answer to any of these questions is YES, it's time to discuss them with a specialized professional.
The idea is not to judge or make you feel guilty, but to recognize that support can make all the difference. It's best not to wait for things to get complicated: resources and tools exist to help you understand what's going on, and move forward at your own pace towards lasting change.
What solutions exist?
Getting out of an addiction takes more than willpower: it's a process that requires time, support and a holistic approach.
The integrative approach, which combines different disciplines, makes it possible to act on several levels at once: physiological, emotional, behavioral and psychological.
Here are a few complementary disciplines that have proven their worth:
Conventional medicine is indispensable for concomitant disorders (existence of mental health problems), for withdrawal (in the case of heavy alcohol or drug consumption, for example), for any health problem requiring medical treatment and specific care.
Psychotherapy and psychology enable you to explore your personal history, heal traumas and mental health problems, and modify the internal mechanisms at the root of your addiction.
Naturopathy complements the contribution of modern medicine by supporting the body and nervous system during withdrawal, helping to alleviate physical and emotional symptoms (cravings, anxiety, fatigue...) and promoting balance and good lifestyle habits (diet, sleep, physical activity). This approach does not replace medical care.
Hypnosis works in depth to reprogram certain unconscious automatisms that have been ingrained for a long time. Using relaxation and the imagination, this approach enables new thought and behavioral patterns to be put in place.
The helping relationship enables us to better understand why the person is resorting to this behavior, and to find other, more constructive and healthy ways of dealing with it. The aim is to put in place concrete strategies to achieve one's goal (abstinence or moderation) and to equip oneself to get through periods of craving more serenely.
Other practices can also support the recovery process: acupuncture, meditation and mindfulness practices, group therapy, art therapy, etc.
Restoring well-being
There's no one-size-fits-all solution: it's often by combining several approaches and therapists that a true balance is achieved.
Acknowledging an addiction is the first step towards regaining control over your life. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but of courage and lucidity. Freeing yourself from harmful behaviours opens the way to long-term, profound inner well-being.
A comprehensive program for a lasting break from addiction
Synergilibre's 100% online addiction therapy program offers structured remote support designed to address the multiple dimensions of addiction. Using an integrative approach, it combines several disciplines (psychology, naturopathy, hypnosis, relaxation, psychosocial intervention) to support mental, emotional and physical health.
Whether the goal is abstinence or moderation, this program allows you to progress at your own pace, with concrete tools, progressive modules, relaxation sessions, individual or group consultations and therapeutic follow-up by members of the team of specialized therapists. A real path to greater freedom, autonomy and well-being.
Would you like to find out more about this distance therapy for addictions and harmful behaviors? Book a free meeting with us.
Not sure if you want to tackle this problem? Do you have bad habits and hesitate to ask for help? Don't know which resources to turn to? Feeling ambivalent and lacking motivation? We're offering you a series of free emails, specially designed to help you see things more clearly. For one month, you'll receive advice, food for thought and concrete tools to get you started on the road to greater well-being, at your own pace.
I'd like to receive my free tools