Sometimes the need to do something can be overwhelming. It can become so overwhelming it can become painful. This type of pain is not physically painful like a broken arm, but mental anguish is often much more severe than physical pain and can even manifest with physical symptoms.
When you suffer from mental anguish you feel like you could die. You feel like you are dying. Worse, you feel like you want to die.
Mental anguish is not in the imagination. The mind has its own survival, fight or flight, mechanisms. When activated they cause extreme mental anguish and even physical suffering. When activated they become compulsions. Gambling, sex and shoplifting are just a few of the more common forms of compulsory behaviors that can cause someone to suffer from mental anguish. The suffering is so complete and overwhelming that the mind actually convinces the person that it would rather die than to suffer another moment. Once the behavior (sex, shoplifting, etc.) is satisfied, the mental anguish turns into a euphoric feeling of relief and satisfaction. But this euphoric feeling is very temporary and soon the discomfort begins again and intensifies until the suffering begins all over again. The mind then learns that in order to attain the euphoric feeling, the anguish must be inflicted first.
For the man or woman who suffers from sex, shoplifting or any other compulsive behavior, their lives are literally in danger. These behaviors can lead to disease, prison, chronic depression, anxiety and even suicide. People suffering need help, while too often what they get is criticism and misunderstanding from a legal system or loved ones.
The compulsive person has a defect, but this defect is not a moral one as many people think. It is a subconscious one. The subconscious mind has determined that something essential is missing. This missing thing could be love, validation, attention, material security or something else that is typically unknown to the conscious mind. Whatever the mind feels deprived of, it has now formed an unhealthy way of satisfying itself: The compulsion.
Compulsions and addictions are difficult to treat. Sex and gambling are legal and socially acceptable. The temptation to steal is everywhere. To effectively treat compulsive behavior, the subconscious mind must be addressed rather than the conventional forms of treatment. By treating the symptoms and destroying the cause at its source, the problem can finally be solved. If you or anyone you know suffers from any type of destructive behavior then you should call for professional help.
Scott Spackey is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Life-Counselor and California Registered Addiction Specialist who works with all ages, children to adults, in the SCV. If you would like to attend a Shoplifting Anonymous or Sex Anonymous group call for details. For more information, please call 661-299-1966, visit www.LIFE-MIND.com or email Scott@Life-Mind.com .
