Addiction, Shame & Secrecy: Breaking the Cycle | Andrew Anderson | Schoen Clinic Chelsea

Описание: Addiction can feel like a cycle you can’t escape — marked by guilt, shame, secrecy, and the sense of being trapped.

In this video, Andrew Anderson, Psychodynamic Psychotherapist within the specialist outpatient addictions programme at Schoen Clinic Chelsea, shares a reflective and compassionate perspective on why addiction develops, what keeps it going, and what recovery can begin to look like.

Andrew works with adults experiencing addiction, dependency, and compulsive behaviours — including individuals who may appear to be coping externally (maintaining careers, relationships, and responsibilities) while privately struggling with impulsivity, isolation, shame, emotional overwhelm, or repeated cycles of relapse and recovery.

In this conversation, Andrew explores how addiction often involves a painful pattern:
• the behaviour (drinking, using, compulsive coping)
• the consequences that follow
• the internal response — guilt, regret, remorse
• the promise that “this is the last time”
• waking up and feeling compelled to repeat the cycle again

He also describes addiction as something that can function like an “anaesthetic” — a way of self-medicating deeper pain. But over time, the consequences can create additional layers of distress, adding more shame and regret on top of earlier trauma or emotional wounds.

Andrew highlights that addiction does not always fit the stereotype people expect. Individuals struggling with dependency may include:
• people using alcohol or drugs
• people reliant on prescription medication
• people caught in compulsive or addictive behaviours
• people who feel they must hide their struggles to maintain an external image

Across all of these experiences, Andrew identifies common emotional themes: shame, guilt, secrecy, and isolation.

Importantly, he also emphasises that addiction rarely affects only one person. Addiction can become a “family illness,” impacting relationships, loved ones, and wider support networks — with many people feeling pulled into the orbit of the dysfunction at the centre.

Andrew’s therapeutic approach is psychodynamic and psychoanalytically informed, offering in-depth, reflective therapy that helps individuals explore the emotional and relational drivers beneath addictive patterns. Rather than offering quick fixes or prescriptive solutions, he provides a consistent space where clients can speak openly, reflect honestly, and begin to make sense of what is happening — and why.

Therapy may support people to explore:
• unconscious patterns and coping strategies
• attachment and relationship difficulties
• trauma and emotional distress
• self-worth, identity, and shame
• impulsivity and emotional dysregulation
• the internal conflicts that can underpin addiction

A key part of recovery, Andrew explains, begins with acknowledging there is a problem — and then having support to process what that acknowledgement brings up: loss, regret, shame, grief, and uncertainty. At Schoen Clinic Chelsea, the aim is to provide a safe, containing environment where these experiences can be held, understood, and worked through, helping individuals move forward with greater clarity and stability.

This video is for:
• individuals struggling with addiction or dependency
• people who feel stuck in cycles of relapse and shame
• families affected by addiction
• professionals seeking a deeper understanding of addiction psychology
• anyone considering outpatient addiction treatment in London

🔗 Find out more about Andrew Anderson
https://www.schoen-clinic.co.uk/speci...
🔗 Outpatient Addiction Treatment Programme (London)
https://www.schoen-clinic.co.uk/addic...

📍 London-based outpatient addiction care
🧠 Specialist support for addiction + co-occurring mental health difficulties
🤝 Multidisciplinary, evidence-based, person-centred treatment

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