Beyond the Bottle: Why Healing Addiction Starts with Feeling

Mar 23, 2026

It’s often said that emotional pain is the gasoline to the fire of addiction. Long before a physical dependency takes hold, there is usually a quiet, urgent craving to escape one’s own feelings. In the world of recovery, experts are increasingly finding that addressing the behavior is only half the battle; the real work lies in untangling the complex web of experiences hidden beneath the surface.

The Spectrum of Escape
While “addiction” usually brings to mind substances like alcohol or drugs, the modern landscape of dependency includes a wide array of process addictions. These behaviors don’t require ingesting a substance but are just as effective at altering a person’s mood; often with devastating consequences. These include:

Compulsive Shopping & Gambling: Using financial risk or acquisition to spike dopamine.
Digital Distractions: Losing hours to social media or pornography to avoid reality.
Physical Extremes: Using eating or exercise compulsions to exert control over internal chaos.

Ultimately, whether the “drug” is a chemical or a smartphone, the goal is often the same: to numb an emotion before we’ve even had the chance to name it.

The “Shopping Trip” Test
A common question arises: If I go shopping because I’m feeling down, am I addicted? The answer lies in the “toolbox” of your life. If a specific behavior is the only way you know how to manage your feelings, it may be a cause for concern. It is the repeated, exclusive use of a behavior without other means of coping or support that signals a deeper issue.

“We can always find a distraction, but to heal, we must know what we are feeling and, more importantly, share it.”

Choosing Courage Over Numbing
The practice of mindfulness developing a regular awareness of our inner world is the antidote to the urge to escape. While it can feel incredibly daunting to put down your “armor” and share your vulnerability with a friend, partner, or counselor, the rewards are far more permanent.

Unlike the temporary relief of a substance or a compulsive habit, the feeling of being truly loved and supported doesn’t wear off. Each moment presents a new choice: the choice to numb, or the courage to connect. By acknowledging our feelings as they rise and reaching out to a safe outlet, we reclaim the power to choose our response rather than simply reacting to the pain.

Recovery Support During Social Distancing

Apr 8, 2020

There’s a saying in the recovery community: What we cannot do alone, we CAN do together. In nearly all recovery models, there is a strong emphasis on connection to others as a support. Our Long Term Intern, Louis Vermillion says, “The first word of the 12 steps in any recovery program is WE…it is said that the disease of addiction is always whispering in the our ear, and accountability with others in recovery helps quiet that whisper.”

Isolation can be the enemy of recovery and in this tumultuous time, it’s important that those who need support can find it. Locally there are some online options. Focus is doing live Facebook check-ins daily at noon, while other recovery meetings are meeting thru Zoom. Hancock Helps offers a support link and information about local meetings while other online meetings can be found at intherooms.com and weconnectrecovery.com. Additional information including recorded speakers, books and general information can be found at AA.org.

For those not yet integrated into a recovery community, or finding themselves in an unknown place, ADAMSHS offers a variety of starting points to begin the path of healing.

“Marie Kondo” your behaviors, not just your closet

Mar 29, 2019

“Marie Kondo” your behaviors, not just your closet

If you caught the Netflix miniseries Tidying Up, you’ve watched the ways in which she’s instructed families to sift through their belongings and release them back to the world when they no longer “spark joy.” In our office, we’ve discussed Marie’s wisdom and what it can offer to our clients and our own sense of well-being.

Her first step is to bring out into the open everything you own in a particular category. We often don’t know what all we have hidden away until we’ve taken it from hiding places. When faced with our large quantities, we can fully grasp the extent of what we have, what we’ve been hanging onto and put it into perspective.

Next, she suggests we hold an item in our hands to feel its weight. We let ourselves not just think about it, but have a physical experience of its presence in our life. And then we ask a crucial question: does it spark joy? Or perhaps, is it a conduit for joy? If it does “spark joy”, then it can find a proper home. But if not? Then we take a moment to thank the item for its service in our life, and we pass it along to be given away or discarded completely.

This process, which often leads to much purging through the home, can be helpful in our mental and emotional lives as well. Our EMDR-based philosophy recognizes that particular behaviors have been adapted because they served a purpose: to keep an individual alive and functioning during or after a point of trauma. It’s an old solution that no longer works.

We can actually be grateful to our survival mechanisms because they served a purpose, for a period of time. But just like that tattered college-years hoodie, it doesn’t serve the same purpose anymore. With the help of your treatment provider, you can acknowledge these behaviors, thank them for their service, and then be done with them. With the new spaciousness, you’ll find freedom to adapt lifestyles more congruent with your present instead of your past.

But what about sentimentality? How can we get rid of the mementos and reminders of our history? Holly Schweitzer-Dunn, LISW, reminds us that we can respect and honor our past without keeping it right in front of us. Letting go doesn’t diminish its history, but hanging on may diminish the future.

Surfing Why you should Marie Kondo Your Relationships

Reading Real Love: The art of mindful connection by Sharon Salzburg; The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr; Mothers, Daughters and Body Image by Hilary McBride; Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

Listening The Robcast: Kristen Bell on Anxiety, Part 1 and Part 2; Another Name For Every Thing

Watching One Strange Rock on Netflix

Visiting Sunny Florida! Nicole, Michele and the Schweitzer-Dunn family made recent trips.

Eating Holly recently dug out the greens for a fresh pesto!

Moving NeuroMovement- Learn more from Jill Bolte Taylor and Anat Baniel

Hancock County Park District is sponsoring a free Take a Walk in the Park day on March 30. And Aqua Zumba meets Holly’s need for a little bit of silliness and fun in a workout.

Registering The 3rd Annual Jenelle Hohman Color Me Happy 5k Run/Walk to support Hancock County NAMI is coming up May 18

Leading Andrea led a workshop on the Enneagram at the Findlay MOPS group and our office will be conducting a breakout session at the University of Findlay’s upcoming conference on Trauma and Addiction.

Creating Planning an herb and vegetable garden to be planted soon!

Resting A trip to Miami for family R&R

Keeping Peace This Holiday Season

Dec 12, 2016

Keeping Peace This Holiday Season

Christmas cards and commercials are created to make us feel as if every waking hour from Thanksgiving to January 1 should be filled with magical moments with family and friends. We’re socialized to appear “happy” during these celebratory times of year. We know this isn’t always the situation. Rather, the last two months of the year tend to make people feel guilty and ashamed if you don’t feel happy and joyful. Instead of trying to muster up the “happy” of the holidays, consider spending your energy mindfully approaching the season:
1. Validate your feelings. Experience the range of feelings, and remind yourself you need not react. Instead of telling yourself, “I shouldn’t be feeling this way because…” remind yourself that, as a human, feelings are a normal part of a healthy life. Allow yourself to feel and find a response that will be more helpful to move you toward how you want to feel.

2. Cope ahead. Rather than resorting to reactions in the midst of the hustle and bustle, consider taking action before the frenzy begins. Remind yourself of the challenges of previous holidays and plan a potential response. For example, if holiday parties tend to tempt you into engaging in more festive eating and drinking than you are comfortable with, make sure you pack your can of Sprite or give yourself some parameters to follow at the buffet line (“at least two vegetables before a dessert!”). Then when you arrive you can choose to follow what you already know to be best, rather than making decisions with social pressure or emotion involved.

3. Feel it. If you notice your body or mind shifting toward frustration, anger, or grief, name the feeling. Remind yourself that you are allowed to feel. Find a safe place to share the feelings – a close friend or a loved one who will hold space for you. After this, you may feel more freedom to move on to the next feeling.

4. Simplify. Choose wisely how you will spend your precious time and eliminate the parts that are beyond your capacity. No one else gets to dictate how you celebrate a holiday. Consider ordering the holiday dinner, traveling during the holidays or donating to a charity rather than spending money on gifts.

Though the holiday season comes with challenges, give yourself the space to experience the wide range of feelings – joy, grief, love, temptation – as a whole person.

Treating Addiction

Oct 18, 2016

Treating Addiction

with the Freedom to Feel

by Jayne Williams, LICDC, LICC

Emotional pain is gasoline to the fire of addiction. Before a chemical or physiological addiction transpires, a person craves the escape from his or her feelings. In the work of recovery, we must address not only the behaviors, but the web of experience behind the behavior. The work of knowing our feelings – mindfulness – takes a regular practice of awareness. Many times we experience emotion below the surface and attempt to escape before we’ve had a chance to name them.
In discussing addiction, we most often refer to chemical dependency, an emotional and physical tolerance to chemicals. We can’t ignore the plethora of process addictions that do not involve ingesting a substance, but which alter a person’s mood and have negative consequences for their lives, such as gambling, sexual addictions, shopping, pornography, and eating/exercise compulsions.

We can always find a distraction, be it substances, social media, shopping, or work. To heal, we need to be able to know what we are feeling at any given time and share it with someone. This tendency to not know our emotions or connect with others for support leaves us vulnerable to numbing behaviors.

If I go shopping by myself when I am feeling a bit down, am I addicted? If this is the only way to manage feelings, then it could be a problem. It is repeated use of any behaviors without other means of coping and support that is the concern.

The good news: every day, every moment, you have a choice. You can choose to numb and avoid or you can choose the courage to share it with someone. It can be scary to share emotions with another person, be it a friend, partner or even counselor. You might feel vulnerable when you put down your armor, but the feeling of being loved and supported doesn’t wear off like the emotional numbing of addictions does. When your feelings rise to the top, acknowledge them, share them with a safe and healthy outlet and recognize that you can choose your response.

Jayne Williams, LICDC – LEARN MORE