At Renew, we look at addictions as coping strategies for stress, depression, anxiety, grieg, loss, trauma and feelings of low self-value. When these conditions aren’t handled in an effective way, it can lead to a variety of coping strategies (addictions).

When individuals experience some sort of mental, emotional or physical stress in their lives, they form habitual patterns of behaviour that enable them to deal with the stress. Depending on the individual and their past experiences, if they fail to acknowledge and deal with that stress in a healthy and realistic way it may lead to that individual developing an addiction.

There are many types of addictions or addictive behaviours. Just a few are prescription medication, drugs, alcohol, gambling, spending, overeating, workaholic, anger and sex.

Prescription Medication – Sometimes dependency on prescription medication happens after a stay in hospital for either a mental or physical trauma. Others develop the dependency for personal reasons. This can lead to other drug abuse.

Drug and Alcohol Abuse – This coping strategy is a way of avoiding dealing with the unpleasant thoughts, emotions and behaviours of stress related conditions. We have been conditioned to avoid and resist the natural stress response in our lives.

When the body has adapted to long term substance use it initially needs to be corrected through diet, exercise and detoxification. However, long term success is derived from dealing with the reasons why a person started using in the first place as well as the physical components.

Other Addictions

• Gambling
• Overeating
• Spending
• Sex
• Workaholic

All other addictions are coping strategies to deal with unwanted stress. The reason some individuals develop an addiction and others don’t is due to the overall past and present experiences and beliefs of the person.

Due to poor self care during these addictive periods, adrenal stress may be present, along with poor physical health. This can be due to late nights, eating fast food, excess smoking, financial worry and unrealistic work ethic. Initially this needs to be corrected through diet, exercise and removal of toxins from their system. However, long term success is derived from dealing with the reasons why a person developed this addiction in the first place.

Why?? It is so important because this is your life and you have a life to live! Life is about living, not just surviving. When you are caught up in the stress response, you are just surviving, you certainly aren’t THRIVING. The way you are acting now, has become normal for you. We need to give you a new happier, healthier and fulfilled “you.”

Due to addictive behaviour, a lot of relationships with friends and family may be strained, so it is important that some time and focus is spent on this very important area of life. Life is relationships and at RENEW we like to encourage a strong support base of family and friends, where possible.

Most people with addictions want to be who they used to be and they want to be happy again. Whilst we can’t guarantee that, what we can guarantee is that there will be a RENEWED “you,” armed with lots of learning, growth and mental and physical development. The individual will be better equipped for life and feel contented because they have faced the stressors that have been causing their stress and dealt with them. This does not mean they will never feel stressed again, it does mean they will spend less time in painful emotions.

An addiction is caused by a particular way of thinking. We address this inaccurate thinking and seek out socially learned coping mechanisms and change them. We consolidate this change, over and over again. Next, we equip our guests with new coping mechanisms and tools they can use to deal with stress and feel a full sense of self worth in the future. Individuals, who feel good about themselves and deal with stress effectively, don’t need to use addictive behaviours in excess as they have other better options, when life doesn’t go how they hoped. The problem with addictive behaviours is that people don’t learn other skills to handle stress and self doubt when they are doing the behaviour. As the addiction becomes their number one coping strategy, when pressure increases, the level of addiction increases until crisis point.

We also look at the guest’s current exercise habits. We provide them with a diverse range of daily activities, so they can see for themselves how exercise can help improve their mindset. Included daily are yoga and meditation techniques which aide in the guest learning to bring their focus to the present moment.

Lastly we provide a highly nutritional cleansing diet and massage so they finish their program with a healthy mind and body and glowing with health. We back this up with a large dose of fun and weekend adventures exploring the cultural and recreational delights of Bali.

The Key Benefits of Our Approach

• Improved and fulfilling relationships
• Self belief and empowerment
• Improved physical and mental health
• Increased concentration, focus and clarity
• Effective authentic communication
• Health and wellbeing
• Resilience for when times are tough
• Reduced financial strain
• Restored energy and passion
• Well equipped to deal with daily stresses