8 Signs of Love Addiction – How to Tell If You Are Addicted to Love & How to Beat it!

Love addiction is mainly dependent on love relationships and a lot of dependencies. Though the beginning stages are all romantic but eventually when the dependency develops, the relationship also strains and it then turns the relationship to the love addiction stage wherein one partner who loves more or is under the impression of loving the other more becomes the love addict, and the other one becomes the love avoidant. Besides, the love addict tends to fall in love quickly with every person as he walks around with his heart on the sleeve. He eventually gets into a relationship and starts dominating the other person under the pretext of love and passion. Most of the time they get into a relationship so that they can get over the pain they had gone through in their childhood.

A Virtual Tour Of Our Campus - Rio Retreat Center

The first thing patients will notice about the Rio Retreat Center is the peaceful, natural setting in which our facility is located. Our campus creates an atmosphere that is conducive to contemplative work and self-examination. Famous for its breathtaking landscapes and tranquil beauty, the Wickenburg area rests on the northern edge of the Sonoran Desert, just below Arizona’s mountainous country.

 

Many of our patients feel that the peacefulness of the Rio Retreat Center at The Meadows campus reinforces their mindset for recovery.

We Can Help

Workshops at the Rio Retreat Center are designed to help you understand your own needs, desires, emotions, habits, and everything else that makes you who you are. The more you know about yourself, the better equipped you are to engage in healthy relationships and have an improved sense of self. To learn more about the Rio Retreat Center at The Meadows or to sign up for one of our groundbreaking workshops, call us at 866-494-4930 or fill out the form below and a representative will be happy to provide you more information.

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Counseling for Grief Arizona

Relationships cannot be stronger if they do not pass through hardships. Some couples pass relationship tests with flying colors while some who fail to make it work. As long as each partner is willing to address the issue and participate in developing a solution, most relationship problems are manageable. However, when challenges are left unaddressable, tension mounts, poor habits develop, and the health and longevity of the relationship are in jeopardy. These couples could open themselves up to relationship counseling or counseling for grief therapies. If you feel you are one of these, Rio Retreat at the Meadows in Arizona is the place where you could seek help from experts.

Stress and relationship:

Stress due to work or social pressure could affect relationship negatively. Communication plays a big role in the relationship. Resentment, contempt, and an increase in the frequency of arguments tend to be signs of underlying problems that have been left unaddressable. Some common relationship concerns include routine conflict, emotional distance, sexual intimacy issues, and lack of trust. Sometimes, marriage itself can be the issue at hand for couple, when one partner wants to marry, and other does not.

Healing Heartache: A Grief And Loss Workshop

Healing Heartache: A Grief And Loss Workshop provides a safe, sacred for participants to lean into the grief, which facilitates the healing. Loss can come in many forms including death of a loved one, loss of one's health, relationship losses, major life changes, lost opportunities, etc. During this 5-day workshop:

 

• Cumulative loss over the life cycle will be examined,
• Myths and inaccurate messages about grief will be dispelled, helping to normalize feelings,
• Thinking processes and patterns of destructive behavior following trauma or loss will be explored
• Feelings and words left unsaid will be released through experiential exercises,
• Issues pertaining to relational problems will be addressed, with an emphasis on recognizing emotional reactions to loss, trauma, and broken dreams,
• Resources will be offered to assist participants in moving forward, and
• Psycho-education on grief and recovery will be provided, offering hope for the future.

To register, or for more information, call 866-835-5431.

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Signs that You Need Help for Sex Addiction

Are my sexual behaviors really that bad?

Just like any addiction, sexual addiction can occur on a continuum of severity. On one end of the spectrum is the person who has caused physical harm to themselves or others or who has gotten into legal trouble for their sexual behaviors. On the other end is the person who hides their behaviors and feels shame about them but has not really suffered any external or visible consequences as a result.

While a person who has suffered more consequences might be more likely to admit they have a problem, it is not necessary to let things get that far before seeking help. No one thinks that they will ever go “that far,” or that their addiction will get out of control. Almost everyone feels somewhat surprised when they find themselves neck deep in dire consequences from their sexual behaviors, having believed that they would somehow avoid the inevitable. It is possible, and wise to stop before it gets to that point.

How do I know if I have an addiction?

There are three common characteristics of addiction: obsession, compulsion, and continuation despite adverse consequences.

Obsession refers to the intrusive and sometimes never-ending thoughts about the behavior. Obsession could mean that a person constantly thinks about the behavior; but, more often, it simply means the obsessive thoughts come at times that are inconvenient, inappropriate, or distracting and that it is difficult to stop the thoughts when they do arrive. The thoughts can be about the actual sexual behavior or about some aspect of the behavior. People might obsess about a person that they act out with, a place where they have acted out, (a hotel, car, or certain club) a plan to act out, or something that they use in their acting out (website, flowers, secret phone) or even about plans to enable their acting out (checking funds, making reservations, thinking of excuses of why they will be home late).

Compulsion refers to the engagement in the behavior despite efforts to not engage. A person who makes sincere promises that they will discontinue the behavior, then finds excuses to continue doing it in spite of those promises is typically acting on a compulsion. Another common example of a compulsive behavior is when a person knows they have made a prior commitment to be somewhere, like at a family function, but they feel they must act out sexually and they do, making them late for the function or making them miss it entirely. Ultimately, compulsive behaviors will lead to adverse consequences; however, adverse consequences alone do not necessarily mean that an addiction is present. Some people engage in a behavior, suffer an undesirable consequence, and then never engage in that behavior again. But, when someone continues the behavior after suffering consequences, it indicates a more severe problem.

Imagine a person who compulsively views pornography. Their children find the digital files, and their spouse becomes very angry and insists that all the pornographic images be deleted from the computers in their home. Instead, the person downloads the images onto a flash drive, labels it “Architecture Plans,” and continues to watch it, hoping the children will be deterred by the label.

This is a continuation of behavior despite adverse external consequences and puts this person at risk for further undesirable outcomes. Internal consequences are just as important as external consequences but are often less obvious than external ones. Internal consequences include, but are not limited to, feelings of intense shame, intense self-hatred, isolation, and secrecy. Adverse external and/or internal consequences are usually what motivate the person to seek help.

Do I need help?

Adverse consequences have a unique way of offering a moment of clarity. A person may be willing to admit to themselves that they need help after suffering a consequence. Or they may be willing to get help, even if they are not sure they need it because, at a minimum, they want to avoid further painful consequences. There are also times when a person might seek help just to appease a loved one, their employer, or the courts.

Regardless of the reason, if the person receiving help is open to looking at the potential causes of their behavior and its consequences, they will reap the benefits of treatment. If you have suffered consequences for your sexual behaviors, particularly repeated consequences, the time to seek help is now.

Still have doubts?

When a person experiences consequences, it usually leads to a bit of an emotional crisis. There is a strong desire for the pain to stop. When the pain of consequences leads a person to make the wise decision to seek help, denial can sometimes step in and offer a second opinion. After the crisis of the consequence fades, decisions to seek help are occasionally rescinded. That call for help might seem like a “rash decision” or an “overreaction.” Do not allow yourself to fall back into the denial. Get the help you need. Your future self will thank you.

What are my options for help?

Rio Retreat at The Meadows offers two different 5-day workshops, one exclusively for men and one exclusively for women, that helps people begin to deal with their sexual compulsivity or sexual addiction.

The Men’s Sexual Compulsivity Workshop helps men to broaden participants’ views about sexuality, learn how to have healthy sexual experiences, maintain positive relationships, and avoid harmful patterns of the past.

The Journey of a Woman’s Heart: Finding True Intimacy Workshop is for women who want to explore unhealthy sexual patterns and behaviors that deeply impact their ability to develop real emotional connections. Methods for enhancing self-esteem from within, rather than seeking validation from outside sources are explored

The Meadows also offers inpatient treatment programs for sexual addiction and compulsivity. Gentle Path at The Meadows is exclusively for men and Willow House at The Meadows is exclusively for women. All of our programs are firmly based in the work of Dr. Patrick Carnes and his 30-task model. Please call our Intake Department at 866-986-3225 to begin the healing process and find out which program is best for you.

Source Link: Sex Addiction Treatment Arizona

All of the Feels: Accepting the Gifts of Emotion

In our culture, we are taught that certain feelings are off limits. There is a general sense that if you’re not happy most of the time that you’re doing life wrong.

I went into my own therapy and my career of becoming a therapist to rid myself and others of all those inconvenient and unpleasant feelings of fear and pain. Before I began any of my own therapy, I didn’t even have words to describe what my therapist referred to as “feelings”. Why would I want to describe or acknowledge any of these horrible sensations and experiences with words that might allow other humans to understand what I was going through and maybe even see the real me?

After doing my best to avoid feelings in my therapist’s office for as long as he would allow, I acquiesced to his consistent, we’ll call it re-direction: “That’s not a feeling, that’s a thought”. When I started labeling my emotions I discovered something quite shocking—it takes a lot less energy and creates less suffering to just feel them and maybe, if you’re brave enough, to share them with someone else.

Upon deeper investigation, I began to understand that I had neatly tucked away my feelings. I had traded them in for a nicely organized chart of life experiences with lots of explanations and justifications to avoid ever experiencing any of those emotions. I later discovered this was called intellectualization, a distorted thinking pattern, set up by certain parenting missteps from my major caregivers.

The Gift of Emotion

I’ve also learned that each of the eight primary emotions offers us different gifts, and to avoid any of them negates a unique part of the human experience. It turns out that while I was avoiding all that pain and fear, I was actually avoiding a whole lot of joy, love, and passion as well.

Through my work here at The Meadows, I have seen how much damage can be done while trying to avoid feelings. People attempt to avoid feelings through various types of addictions and other unhealthy behaviors. Many times shame is a major contributing factor. Interestingly enough, as we try to medicate our feelings of shame and worthlessness, we are actually creating more shame, which then has to be medicated as well, leaving us in a never ending bind. By looking at our past we are able to identify the messages we received about which feelings are “okay” and which are not, and eventually learn to cope with all of them. By learning to tolerate and accept feelings the way they are, and not the way we want them to be, we allow ourselves to become more authentic. The result is that we are less prone to use those old methods of avoidance and self-protection that landed us in a heap of trouble.

The Eight Basic Feelings

So, you may be thinking, “why would I want to feel my feelings?” The answer is that each one of our emotions offers us a distinctive gift. Even fear, pain, and shame—emotions we are most likely to try to avoid—serve an important purpose.Healthy fear lets us know that we are in danger and should move to safety, literally keeping us alive.

Pain may be one of the reasons you’re on this particular website; and really, it’s one of the main catalysts for change. Most people do not enter a treatment program or make a major life change without first experiencing some amount of pain. Pain can be a real motivator and—let’s face it—sometimes a good cry feels really healing.

When it comes to our own shame, healthy feelings of shame offer us containment. As Pia Mellody says, we only need enough healthy shame to keep us from running naked down the street. Experiencing our own shame allows us to accept our own mistakes and humanity; and, with those experiences, we are able to accept the mistakes of others without all that self-righteous victim anger or resentment bubbling up.

Most people don’t end up in treatment because of having too much joy, passion, or love; however, maybe you grew up in a family where these feelings were not acknowledged or expressed. Joy, passion, and love are the building blocks of relationships and being able to get in touch with and express these three feelings can be a very powerful experience and improve your mood almost instantly.

Learning to Feel

I’d like to think that I’ve made friends with most of those eight emotions, and have learned that the most uncomfortable feelings offer me the greatest lessons.
If you are struggling to cope with your emotions, join us for one of our Survivors workshops. These workshops are designed to provide you insight into how your past is impacting your present, as well as, reducing reactivity and intensity of your feelings in your current relationships. Call 866-932-2036 for more information.

Source Link:- Trauma Therapy Arizona

A Meditation on Grief

“Grief can result in a variety of types of losses. Some of these losses are well-recognized such as divorce, the loss of a loved one, or the loss of a job. Other types of losses can be just as difficult to deal with and sometimes less understood, such as moving, illness, or any other unexpected life changes. Loss can be experienced with both negative and positive events.

An event may be positive overall, such as getting a promotion at work but can still be associated with loss. It’s a loss of what is familiar—a loss of living in the old way.

Change can be associated with these feeling of loss. So perhaps today you are dealing with a change that is relatively positive and your grief is relatively mild. You may be coping with a significant loss and are going through a challenging grief process. Or you may have experienced a huge loss that’s profoundly 

changed your life, and you’re having difficulty dealing with grief.

Whatever your situation is, grief is real.”

Traumatic Grief

Grieving is often all-consuming and extremely painful, but overall, it is a normal and healthy experience. It can become unhealthy, however, when the symptoms of grief — such as yearning for the deceased, feeling angry about the loss, feeling that life is meaningless or feeling unable to move on — last for six months or more.

Researchers have tied traumatic grief, also known as prolonged grief of Complicated Grief Disorder, to an increase in the risk of suicidal thoughts, heart problems, and cancer. Studies have also shown that grief may trigger depression in the same ways being physically or sexually assaulted or losing a job can trigger the sometimes debilitating condition.

Though traumatic grief may share similar symptoms as clinical depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), many scientists believe that these disorders and Complicated Grief Disorder affect different circuits of the brain. Some also think there’s a possibility that traumatic grief may predict more severe outcomes than depression or PTSD.

 

Healing From Grief and Loss

During “Healing Heartache: A Grief and Loss Workshop” at the Rio Retreat Center at The Meadows, a safe, sacred space is created in order for participants to lean into the grief, which helps to facilitate healing.

Those who attend the workshop also will learn about basic psychological concepts related to grief and loss with an emphasis on recognizing emotional reactions to loss, trauma, and broken dreams. They will also dispel myths and inaccurate messages about grief and learn how to break free from or avoid patterns of destructive behavior that tend to follow trauma and other losses. Read More

Behavioral Health Workshops

Source Link: Rio Retreat Bunkhouse

The Rio Retreat Bunkhouse is designed to be conducive to the process of healing and recovery. Book your stay at The Bunkhouse when you register for your workshop for added convenience, and more immersive healing environment.
Bunkhouse lodging is available on a first come, first serve basis; early registration is recommended.

Rooms and Accommodations

The rooms at The Bunkhouse are purposely free of the distractions that often accompany hotel lodging such as TVs and phones. Rooms are very simply furnished with two twin beds, storage space, an alarm clock, and luggage stand. All rooms have their own private bathroom.
Bunkhouse occupants will have access to the swimming pool during certain hours. Modest bathing suits are required.
A Sunday evening snack will be provided. Meals will be provided from Monday morning through Noon on Friday.

 

Cost

$565 including tax in addition to the workshop cost. This includes lodging in a Double-Occupancy Room.
If you’d like to request a single occupancy room, the cost is $1,000 for the length of stay.
Individuals will be paired with another workshop attendee of the same sex except for instances where couples attending a couple’s workshop are allowed to room together. (Couples are not allowed to room together for the Discovery to Recovery workshop.)

 

Check-in and Check-out

Length of stay is from Sunday evening through Friday morning.
Check-in on Sunday is from 5:00 p.m – 9:00 p.m.
Check-out is on Friday in the morning before the workshop sessions.
On the day of check-out, participants will be asked to bring a lock for their suitcase which can be left in the room while they finish the workshop. The lock is required as rooms will be serviced during the day on Friday.