There is something called the 12 step program, it helps people to over come addictions to negative behaviours.
Addiction is not just for people who poor vodka on their cornflakes or who are slumped in an alley smoking a crack pipe.
Anyone who eats junk food to cheer themselves up or has a drink when they have had a bad day is using something to numb the pain.
The addiction is not the problem it is a coping mechanism to temporarily solve the problem.
The problem is that there is something which is causing them pain. A trauma or experience they had in the past which is still consciously and subconsciously affecting them.
The first three of the 12 steps go something like this
- I admit I have a problem
- I belief in the future I won’t have this problem
- I can’t get rid of this problem on my own
They sound so simple but until they have taken those three steps there is nothing that you can do help.