There are many free recovery groups for addicts and friends/ families of addicts all around the world.

AA – Alcoholics Anonymous
Al Anon – Friends and relatives of addicts
NA – Narcotics Anonymous
SLAA – Sex and Love addicts anonymous
CODA – Codependents Anonymous
GA – Gamblers Anonymous
OA – Overeaters Anonymous
WA – Workaholics Anonymous
DA – Debtors Anonymous
CA – Cocaine Anonymous
ALATEEN – Teenage friends/ family of addicts
EA – Emotions anonymous for mental illness recovery
MA – Marijuana anonymous
The 12 steps program and a sponsor can be great support alongside the process of therapy. Talk to your therapist about finding the right support for you and google for your nearest meeting. A lot of fellowships have online meetings too.

If your relationships have addictive game playing patterns you may be suffering from love addiction/ love avoidance. This is usually due to a fear of intimacy and abandonment. One of these fears is often unconscious which is why your emotions will either be overly out of control or frozen in a ruthless detached extreme. Couples who have intense highs and lows in relationships usually have one love addict and one love avoidant. At any time in the relationship the roles can switch. Usually this creates the cyclic relationship pattern of breaking up and coming either back together or starting a similar relationship with another partner. These best thing to do if you are suffering with these problems is to take a time out from relationships all together although this can be extremely hard for a love addict/ avoidant as the loneliness is excruciatingly painful. There won’t be that one relationship that changes everything… This pattern goes back to your initial attachment style with your primary caregiver(s) and can only really be changed with a commitment to therapy. If you are struggling with this the most important thing when looking for a therapist is to find someone you feel safe with to talk about your early experiences of abandonment and intimacy. Invest in yourself, overcome your fears and then you will experience love in it’s truest form.

Want to share this helpful tool with anyone who needs it… This is called a feeling wheel. It can help you get to the core emotion you/ your client is experiencing and help you/ your client name each feeling when feeling overwhelmed with many emotions. It is especially useful for people who find it hard putting their feelings into words and identifying emotions. #psychotherapy #psychoanalysis #therapy #psychology #shrink