DailyOM: Why do you think addiction is so prevalent in today's society?
Wendyne: I think addiction is so prevalent today in our society due to a number of evolutionary shifts our world has gone through. The use of medications and drugs for solving health and psychological problems has become a way our society is coping with stress, depression, anxiety, and fear. Prescription medications meant to alleviate situational stress have become mainstream drugs sold on the streets. People easily become addicted to such medications like never before.
With the increase in population over the past centuries and the breakdown of many systems in our present society, people are more fearful, depressed, and anxious — searching for the "self". Historically, it has been easier to blame addiction on genetics and illness rather than looking for core issues that may be present in the life and psyche of the addict — repressed feelings, inability to navigate pain, trauma, limited ways of thinking, dysfunctional family imprints — all creating neuro-pathways in the brain which are hardwired for addiction.
Technology has changed our planet in many amazing and positive ways on one end of the continuum. But on the other end, it has opened all of us to a world of addiction, where connection and communication is instant, and addictions of many kinds are ready and waiting for us — drugs, gambling, sex, food, shopping, gaming, co-dependency — addictions to almost anything imaginable. Children and teens have been subjected to people, places, experiences, and subjects they are not developmentally ready for, causing confusion, more stress, and more interest in and openness to drugs, sex, and other distractions. The human brain is changing, people are looking outside themselves for love, communication, and community, they are sleeping less, and needing more drugs and alcohol to just BE.
DailyOM: Explain how you laid out this course and the approach you take to help people understand addiction.
Wendyne: My intention with this course is to help people understand addiction and co-dependency in a new way — to understand the many hidden variables and aspects involved, as well as receive a more enlightened view of addiction. I've set out the course in a 28-day format: each day includes a reading, writing prompts, assignments and daily worksheets, a daily healing mantra, language of power worksheet, and more, to help re-program old habits and addictions.
With this course, people can begin to heal and transform addiction by understanding what is underneath it: repressed feelings of shame and anger, negative ways of thinking and speaking, original imprints, trauma, feelings of being unworthy, unlovable, and states of consciousness that don't allow transformation. These assignments will help one discover and understand the core issues, wounds, and ways of being at the root of all kinds of addiction. It's my intention that students of the course will open to new awareness, mindfulness, and commitment as they move through the 28 days.
DailyOM: In Lesson 4, you teach how our womb and birth experience, as well as our early childhood, can be contributing factors to addiction. Tell us more about this interesting topic.
Wendyne: I've discovered a fascinating connection between addiction and birth. Being that our womb and birth experiences are our first imprints in this lifetime, all that occurred before, during, and right after our birth is significant and becomes a pattern that gets re-enacted in our lives over and over again. Although most people have no idea, there are many psychological effects of birth trauma, often resulting in later numbing of pain with addiction. How you came into this life becomes the way you live and cope with life.
In Lesson 4, students will learn about the psychological effects of many different types of birth, and how they can be an unconscious structure creating addiction patterns in the mind and body. The memory of birth lives in the body as the limbic system registers all the sensations and feelings that come with birth. The next seven years of a child's life is spent creating permanent, connected circuits in the brain as a result of all the child encounters growing up in the family. This means that everything a child goes through, learns, or experiences lives in the unconscious mind and directs all future behavior.
Addicted and codependent people are usually re-enacting their original childhood survival roles and ways of being that were learned during this time. There seems to be a connection between addiction and people believing they are not worthy or loveable. There are no perfect parents, and some parents are healthier than others. In any case, the child takes all the teachings and messages from his parents to heart. Some of these messages are "garbage messages", as they are untrue, demeaning, hurtful, and abusive. Addiction covers up this pain. Childhood, adolescence, and adulthood is then filled with learning "the way to act" and "the way to survive" in this world. The child adapts to the parents and to the world. This course will open awareness and greater knowledge around the connection of birth, childhood, and addiction.
DailyOM: This course really goes deep into understanding the root of our addiction. That journey can be difficult and intense. How do you support students in this journey? Do you have any advice for students before taking the course?
Wendyne: Yes, this course does go deeply into understanding the root of addiction, including codependency and enabling behaviors for families of those in addiction. As our body has held memories of all our experiences, opening to this study may be difficult and intense at times, as memories may become activated and come to the surface.
I recommend working with a therapist or counselor if this begins to happen; and for those who are already working with a therapist, I highly recommend you do this course now, as it could help you get to many core issues and wounds, for lifetime healing and transformation. Doing this work may be difficult at times, but it's time for it all to come up and be released. Take care of yourself and get extra help if needed. You can do it!
DailyOM: What are the biggest takeaways that you hope students will learn?
Wendyne: I wish for all to see that the core wounds and experiences for all of us are similar. We all share times of fear, sadness, anxiety, anger, and shame. These are underlying feelings and states of consciousness that predispose us to addiction, codependency, and enabling behaviors.
As we open to the truth underneath everything, we become free. Understanding addiction is paramount for the times we are living now. We all need to be free, able to speak our truth, and have an advanced and enlightened view of addiction and our lives.
DailyOM: Wendyne compassionately guides you with expertise and wisdom through her course. She creates a safe and accepting space where you can build the courage to understand yourself and heal in the most loving way. Until next time, be well.
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