The Addictive Voice

The most important part of rehab is identifying your addictive voice or using Addictive Voice Recognition techniques. If you can hear a separate voice talking to you, saying ‘have another drink’, ‘just a couple of beers won’t hurt’ or ‘I can stop using Meth anytime’, you’re on the way to recovery. That voice isn’t you. Your real voice is somewhere underneath, waiting to be heard.

Addiction is similar to an alien invasion. Something has overtaken your body, mind and soul. It wants complete autonomy over your life. It’s a jealous lover. It won’t rest until it has made you cut ties with your family, friends, community and your livelihood. It wants you to be alone, isolated and broke.

One you have identified how addiction speaks to you, you can separate it from your mental thoughts and give it an identity. Then you can speak to it as if it is not part of you. This is when you gain personal power over your addiction. Because you are not that voice. Moreover, your real inner voice wants something quite different for you, most probably the opposite. The real you wants love, connection, relationship and to feel something. 

Your addictive voice doesn’t like the hard route. It promises you the easy road, the path of least resistance. It seduces you with great plans to do things you will never end up doing. It makes you lie to your loved ones and never keep your word. It tells you there is a way out that is pleasurable, fun and pain-free, without responsibility. It makes you duck and weave until you become exhausted.

But that route will keep you in a rut and make sure you never grow. You stay the same, and maturity never comes. Your friends leave you behind, you miss all your milestones and life passes you by. Your addictive voice pats you on the back and tells you it’s everyone else’s fault and you were the victim.

With a skilled counselling team, you can find your addictive voice and train yourself to stop listening. But someone has to play Devil’s Advocate and trick the addictive voice. This is where experience comes in. Your rehab support workers are educated in this area and can identify your addictive voice before you do. Doing it on your own can feel impossible, because you don’t know what is what and who’s talking. 

Our team at Gold Coast Detox and Rehab Services are qualified counsellors in addiction management, mental health and clinical therapies. It’s our job to help you identify and overcome your addictive voice and get back to living a healthy life.