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There are many excellent private residential hospitals and clinics that help with addiction to drugs, food, alcohol, and sex. For the truly out-of-control these can help enormously, giving restricted access and close supervision, as well as ongoing professional medical treatment.

For the less damaged, other professional help is available.

As the musician Ry Cooder once said: "All the Money in the World is Spent on Feelin' Good..."

Getting the right assistance at this time can be vital in preventing more extreme developments taking place. We believe that every behaviour, no matter how apparently harmful or reckless, has an 'underlying positive intention'.

Those who have not yet lost complete control of their addictions or excesses may well consider themselves to be 'walking wounded', and relatively functional.

Recognising this gives us a huge advantage in treating moderate addictions. Once you consider that all most people really want is an avoidance of pain, and an increase in pleasure, it is easy to understand why some (admittedly damaging) behaviours can become addictive. Add to that a celebrity lifestyle, an abundance of money, and encouragement from well-meaning supporters, and a strong habit is born. Once this has been established, the unconscious mind believes that it is natural and desirable, and lends its full chemical support. The solution lies in making new connections in the brain, that give an 'equal or greater' release or stimulus than the old 'substance or behaviour' did. Then new choices become second nature, and free action is restored.