Addictions are extreme behaviors that arise in a person who believes he is incomplete. People develop compulsive habits for different reasons. Each person is on a healing journey. If you dream of being anywhere other than where you are, you refuse to believe healing and redemption are available now.
People consume too much of things when they are under the illusion they do not have enough. They over-indulge in activities as they do not consciously feel satisfaction. They behave in ways which they believe compensate for deep-seated fear and perceived lack and yet, a sense of restlessess lingers.
To move beyond unhealthy behavior, a person must evolve to recognize extremes. As you choose to explore reasons why you permit extremes to arise, you also have freedom to explore feelings that perpetuate and dissolve them. The path to wholeness invites you to recognize different sides of yourself;
1) Address the physical level. Based on gender, unless you are a hermaphrodite, you are male or female or what appears to be half of a whole. You are attracted to whatever you sense is missing. Sexual intimacy is one way human beings seek to fill a perceived gap. For many people, this a short-lived experience because the sense of union does not last. A return to oneness raises the issue of energy polarity and why opposites attract. Certain kinds of love are addictive yet they do no serve you.
2) Examine the emotional level. Addictions arise based on the unconscious refusal to face and work through pain and related issues. Whatever you are using or doing to an extreme evokes discomfort precisely because it draws your attention to what bothers you underneath all that. You surpass the threshold where your chosen distraction is no longer effective. The pain source is more pronounced. As you move beyond ego substitutes for needs, another part of you awakens.
3) Review the psychological level. To identify with the mind is to falsely identify with an external sense of self. In other words, you may create an identity based on your social position, material items, money in your possession, physical appearance, perceived approval and conditioned beliefs. To deny ego is not the same as choosing to understand why it exists. As you stop focusing on self, you dissolve reasons for fear. To consciously empty the mind is to stop resisting what is. An effective trigger for change is to completely accept others and yourself. Turning off the judge takes you beyond ego. That is, the inner critic and will to punish, dissolves.
4) Explore spiritual connections. The non-material, non-physical reminds you of the power of presence. This draws attention to the reality of timelessness. As you learn to live in the present, you sense unmanifest reality. Part of you yearns for an end to duality. This is experienced through connecting with everything. You consciously remove veils of illusion and form to sense pure love. Suddenly, energy aligns. You feel it.