Beyond Addiction Episode-8 Featuring Clinical Director Danielle Guinaugh

In this episode of “Beyond Addiction,” we discuss the critical role of counseling and therapy for treating trauma-related addiction issues.

“Beyond Addiction” is a podcast dedicated to sharing an innovative perspective on addiction and recovery. In this series, we discuss an innovative, “inside out” approach to recovery.

In Beyond Addiction Episode 8, Danielle Guinaugh, the clinical director of our non-12 step holistic drug and alcohol treatment program explains that: “We start by seeing the innocence in addiction, that the consequences may be felt on a personal level, but the actual addiction is based on a core misunderstanding of how we meet the thoughts and feelings that life offers us, and where we started using substances instead of our personal innate resilience.”

One of the issues we discuss is the phenomena of substitution in addiction, of one substance or activity, for another.

Often when people overcome drugs or alcohol by traditional means, they substitute that addiction for another. If your drug of choice was opiates, you may switch to alcohol, or in the case of alcohol-related issues, people switch to a chemical. It does not even need to be a substance. Many become workaholics, start shopping, or engage in sex to substitute their untreated addiction.

As Barnett puts it: “People engage in what I refer to as the “Not Doing-ness” of addiction.” This attempt to “Not-Do” overlooks the fundamental misunderstanding behind the addiction, and it never works.

There is a better way to overcome addiction than “White-Knuckling,” or “Not-Doing.”

By exploring the core reasons for their addiction, people become enlightened by their discovery, gaining the insights necessary to lead a happier, and more fulfilling life, without drugs and alcohol, or the need for substitutions to their former addiction.

We see addiction as the innocent attempt to find something outside ourselves to feel good.

Sex, drugs, alcohol, shopping, money, even computer games are used to get a sense that “I’m Ok,” or just to feel better. While we may obtain temporary relief, we find that it is never sustainable. Then we assume we just need more of whatever we are using. We have a hard day at work, we drink two large glasses of wine, instead of one. or if one pill doesn’t work, we take two, or three.

What we want to show people is that they have the inner resources to sit with their emotions and feelings, without turning to a substance or activity for relief, but instead rely on their own inner strength and guidance to be comfortable.

We teach people that they can go within. That is where peace and contentment is. Once an individual sees this as their own reality, the rest starts to naturally fall into place of its own accord.

We actually have this strength and health within us that we just don’t see or recognize.

In the cycle of addiction, we are in a cycle of misunderstanding. The drug or drink, or the substitute activity, seems to work. We think we have found a solution.

Eventually, the solution stops working, and the consequences of using drugs or alcohol become the actual problem. We wake up one day and recognize this, but then what? We find a new solution outside of ourselves to relieve our internal unrest and the cycle of addiction starts again.

True freedom comes when we find a new solution that comes from inside ourselves.

A solution that comes from within is portable and sustainable, and leads to a whole new life lived on the basis of wisdom. Our internal wellbeing is always accessible, and always has been, we just didn’t know it.

What make our program at Gulf Breeze Recovery different from traditional treatment is we recognized that not-doing doesn’t work. Instead, we have developed a program that helps our guests discover an inner wisdom they have always had. This is far more powerful for the individual. Many of our guests start attending 12 step meetings, but because they love the spirit in the rooms, not because it is a substitute for drugs and alcohol.

Our guests discover that they never needed anything outside themselves. So they never need them, or any other substitute again. That’s true freedom from addiction.

Let’s use the analogy of the plant.

In this analogy, the soil represents the “outside-in misunderstanding of where our happiness comes from” that needs to be present for the roots, or “internal unrest” to take hold. The roots represent how we experience this internal unrest. Depression, boredom, anxiety, trauma, are all hosted by this soil of internal unrest. Under these fertile conditions, created by the idea that we can get satisfaction from outside ourselves, the plant can grow into the “observable behaviors of addiction.”

• Soil: Outside-In Misunderstanding
• Roots: Internal Unrest (Insecurity, Boredom, Trauma, Depression, etc.)
• Plant: Observable Behaviors of Addiction

Without understanding the nature of our innate health we’re bound to relapse or substitute.

We share the idea that our needs can’t be met from outside ourselves, but from within, and we have an unlimited reservoir of innate wisdom, peace, and wellbeing inside ourselves. When this is recognized through personal experience and insight, the soil is made fallow, and without the nutrients, the roots of internal unrest can’t take hold for the plant to grow back. Otherwise, the plant will continue to grow back.

Without this understanding about the nature of our internal wisdom and innate health, addicted individuals are bound to relapse, or substitute. That’s why the guests at our facility are hungry for truth and insight because that is the real solution to addiction. Understanding you have everything within you already to lead a life where drugs and alcohol, are no longer necessary for happiness.

If you or someone you care about, has an ongoing history of substance use and/or relapse, contact us at Gulf Breeze Recovery or call: (844) 548-1800 to speak to an addiction expert to learn more about our program that has helped so many people overcome their addiction and embrace life.