Rewire Your Instincts
How ARCS Online Addiction Recovery Courses are Different
Most people who seek help for mental illness or seek help for “addiction”, specifically, encounter a “cookie cutter” approach formulated to help them understand how substance abuse develops, avoid temptation and peer pressure, examine risk factors to prevent relapse, and keep a well-balanced life. While all of these basic factors are necessary for recovery from addiction — they are dangerously incomplete. ARCS provides a comprehensive online addictions course that teaches an interdisciplinary process of healing from not only addictions, but from the emotional fractures that cause them. Instead of merely treating the symptoms of addiction — whether to substances or to behaviors such as codependency, relationship addiction, food addictions, love addiction, sex addiction, gambling, “workaholism”, shopping, spending or hoarding — our program addresses the problem, at its root. Our online addiction recovery courses teach you emotional healing and relationship skills, while our online addiction recovery Coaches partner with you through a deeply transformative process — in which you will fill in crucial, developmental gaps that have very likely been caused by some form of trauma.
The Addiction-Trauma Connection
Most if not all addicts are trauma survivors, since addiction is one of the primary indicators of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Most addicts do not realize this because they only define “trauma” as being the result of overt forms of abuse (like physical abuse, for example). But we know, today, that a child being denied their most basic emotional needs affects the same pain centers of the brain, disrupts the formative stages of development, and produces the same set of symptoms documented in overt, physicalized abuse.
So just as the verbal abuse victim may mistakenly believe that they are not being harmed, simply because they do not bear any physical scars — many addicts are prone to minimizing the impact that various life experiences have had upon their psyches.
Just some of the more covert forms of trauma that can cause addictions are:
1 growing up in a dysfunctional, chaotic or unpredictable household
2. growing up with an alcoholic or addicted family member
3. growing up with a traumatized family member (intergenerational trauma)
4. being consistently blamed, shamed or criticized
5. having unduly high expectations placed upon you, as a child
6. having adult responsibilities placed upon you, as a child (parentification)
7. living in poverty
8. exposure to racism, sexism or other forms of discrimination
9. having a parent that is overly emotionally attached or involved
10. abandonment (emotional or physical)
11. neglect (emotional or physical)
12. prolonged stress
13. divorce it the family
14. death in the family
All forms of trauma elicit certain protective mechanisms within the brain and body, which can actually predispose the victim to developing addictions. For example, whenever someone must navigate highly stressful situations, the brain will flood with molecules called neurotransmitters to induce a state of detached calm — this is called Psychic Numbing or Dissociation, and it is a hallmark of PTSD.
But when an individual has become adapted to emotional numbing as one of their primary coping mechanisms, then advancing to greater levels of dissociation through external substances or other addictive behaviors feels natural to them.
In fact, any patterns that assume an uncontrollable nature in your life are a form of psychic numbing — any behavior carried out obsessively (you can’t stop thinking about it, even though you may try to) or compulsively (you can’t stop doing it, even though you may try to) are a form of disconnecting from yourself, in an attempt to avoid pain.
PTSD is essentially a case in which a person’s instincts are locked in a perpetual “overdrive” position, caused by a natural instinctive reflex that is trying to protect them — but this leads to an overreaction in response to current-day circumstances that can lead to protective measures which actually “backfire” and place your welfare in jeopardy!
Left untreated, the addict will become progressively entrenched in an addictive cycle that overwhelms them — because your perceptions and actions will consistently defer to your instinctual drives, over what you intellectually know to be true (“I know this isn’t good for me.”) or what you may wish to happen (“This used to be fun, but I really want to stop now.”)
ARCS Online Addictions Course is a Life-Changing Experience
The ARCS Healing Journey
The solution to running from pain is equipping someone with emotional tools that can readily transmute it into empowerment, and the key to stopping compulsive behaviors is “rewiring” or “rebooting” the instincts.
The fact of the matter is, that there are many coping skills that work much better than addiction (dissociation) — so once you learn them, you will not want to go back.
Why would someone reach for a rusty, stripped screwdriver — when they have a power drill? ARCS online addictions course imparts the vital skill sets required to effectively heal from addiction and from the underlying trauma that induces it, including:
1. how to enhance your emotional awareness and no longer be afraid to feel
2. how to “read” the instinctive instructions that your emotions contain
3. how to develop an internal sense of security and stability
4. how to build and fortify your self-esteem
5. how to validate your own feelings and needs
6. how to commit love and loyalty toward yourself
7. how to set and maintain boundaries
8. how to foster healthy relationships
The ARCS Certification Journey
ARCS knows that the most qualified person to guide someone else through the emotional healing journey is someone who has ventured through this process, for themselves. We also understand that survivors have a unique calling to help others who are suffering — we do, indeed, receive gifts from our trauma.
So everyone who competes our online addiction recovery courses will earn two nationallyaccredited Life Coaching Certifications:
CARC-I: Certified Addiction-Recovery Coach
for specialized work with both substance and behavioral addicts, and their loved ones
CARC-I: Certified Abuse-Recovery Coach
for specialized work with childhood abuse, domestic abuse, and other trauma survivors
The ARCS Program is specifically designed to empower you in every area of your life — it guides you to “transform your pain into purpose”, by helping others after you have achieved you own, internal healing.
The ARCS Coaching Journey
After completing our addiction recovery courses and earning CARC Certifications, you are welcome to join our online community of survivor-Coaches and offer your counseling services from our online platform. Some of our program graduates volunteer, while others prefer to pursue a career in coaching — but all of them enjoy the benefits of sharing their personal healing experience to help other survivors mend their wounds, transcend their difficulties and transform their lives.
