
Isolation is a force
which is the cornerstone of every addictive process.
Enabling the sense of low self esteem and loss of self worth,
not remembering one's core values and emotions.
Moving towards others and learning how to relinquish
the destructive dependency on substances
is one of the first tasks in moving out of the addictive process.
This dependency on substances erodes
whatever capacity for regulation
of the addict's own emotions they once possessed.
One of the healing concepts is mutuality.
That is the mature dependency,
the person's capacity to move towards interdependence
rather than independence from relationships.
Teaching the addict to move toward experiencing
more subtle and satisfying ways of being in relation to others.
"The ability to think about oneself in relation to another,"
- is a necessity for intimacy.
Using narratives to accurately recount ones past (insight)
is a key determinate in knowing others.
"Knowledge of oneself goes hand in hand with knowledge of others."