Changing your relationship with a problem substance or behaviour will be one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do (I promise!); however, that does not mean that the process will always be easy. Based on our experiences providing addiction counselling Calgary, we have put together our top recommended strategies to help you in the early days of addiction recovery. 

Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) therapists and people accessing trauma counselling, addiction counselling, and mental health counselling of any kind are underrepresented in therapy offices across Canada. Estimates are that only up to 38% of BIPOC individuals who are struggling with their mental health access professional support compared to 50% of White individuals. 

Moving from regular use of a substance, like drugs or alcohol, or a behaviour, like overspending, overeating, working too much, compulsive exercise, gambling, or hypersexuality, is no easy feat and takes tremendous courage, strength and, let’s face it, desperation. Often people are forced to make changes through life consequences and circumstances that have become unmanageable. This does not the change the fact that great effort is required to move from Point A to Point B and kudos to you for the work that you are, will be, or have done to improve your life.

In this article we will explore Paige Abbott, Registered Psychologist’s, experience of providing Calgary Addiction Counselling to those struggling with food, sex, love/relationship, spending, work, gambling, and media concerns and what she has observed helps those in their recovery journey. As you will see, Addiction can certainly involve substances but does not end there. This is an area Paige has been exploring for years. We invite you to visit a past blog on ‘The Top 5 Areas Addiction Impacts After Drugs & Alcohol’ to learn more.

Advertisers know how to tempt us with their marketing campaigns and most of us, at one time or another, have found ourselves buying something we did not need, going over our budget on a shopping trip, and feeling regret over a purchase. For most people, this is an occasional occurrence and then goes away completely or for a long time before another mild flare-up happens. Some people are able to learn from these experiences and implement new systems that help them reduce regret, overspending, and thoughtless buying. However, some people become caught in a destructive cycle of spending and buying that they struggle to remove themselves from, despite the increased knowledge, guilt, and tools they may have at their disposal.

Recently there has been a steep rise in the amount of gambling advertisements on all types of media. While many claim not to be “gambling” sites (not exactly sure how they’re able to justify this; even if no actual money is being transmitted the randomness of the games is gambling for our brains) and all of them have a “consume responsibility” disclaimer, nevertheless we are being exposed to this messaging and it has an impact.