At Banbury Lodge we use a blend of evidence based therapies to enable you to understand, explore, and resolve processes and experiences that may be contributing to your love and sex addiction.
In this safe, supportive, and non-judgmental environment we help you uncover, accept and move beyond your addictive thinking and behavior.
We use an integrative approach, blending a variety of focused therapies, mindfulness practices, and skills building sessions that focus on developing healthy interpersonal dynamics, increasing self-esteem, and encouraging resilience.
Our compassionate and accepting treatment team can help you to learn to love and accept yourself, whilst developing healthy and authentic relationships with others.
If you have any other co-occurring issues such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse and eating disorders they can also be addressed at Banbury Lodge as part of your treatment programme.
The goals of love and sex addiction you may set in treatment at Banbury could be;
Whilst no two addicts are the same, trauma often plays a part in developing sex and love addiction so some deep therapeutic work may be appropriate. We have an experienced, expert therapeutic team who can guide and support you at every step.
It can be a very powerful experience to come to realise that your unconscious processes may be driving you into painful situations. From a place of understanding and acceptance you can choose to change! This kind of uncovering and understanding is important in breaking the cycle.
The underlying causes of love addiction are complex and unique to each person. However, there are often shared contributing factors such as childhood neglect or abandonment, rejection, and physical, emotional or sexual abuse.
As a result of insecure attachment, because of difficult relationships in childhood, you may have struggled with social connection, with confidence, and with having a clear sense of self or clear boundaries. Sometimes the effort to maintain relationships may be quite painful and desperate.
Sex and love have a very similar impact on the neurotransmitters in the brain, like dopamine, as do many drugs. The same brain pathways associated with energy, focus, euphoria and craving are linked to both substance and non-substance/process addictions. Both sex addiction and love addiction are disorders of emotional intimacy. Both are characterized by obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours, in much the same way as any addiction is.
Love and romance are a healthy part of relationships, but relentless pursuit of the romantic or sexual “high” can actually hinder the development of genuine intimacy with others.
The driving forces behind sex and love addiction are often not thrill seeking or hedonism, instead often its roots can be found in lack of self-esteem and lack of self-love. Sex and love addiction has a number of potentially devastating complications from possible medical complications including contracting sexually transmitted diseases, to decreased performance at work due to obsessive behaviours, and to isolation and shame.
At Banbury Lodge we can help you recover and to develop healthy interpersonal skills, self-love, and a life that is free from addiction.
Whist there are similarities between sex and love addiction there are also differences that separate the two disorders.
Symptoms of Sex addiction include;
Symptoms of Love addiction include;
Sex addiction and love addiction are different but both leave sufferers with disordered intimacy patterns. Preoccupation sex and love actually creates a barrier between people. If you are suffering with love and sex addiction you can recover. At Banbury we provide specialized treatment designed to help you:
The term codependency was originally applied to the partners of alcoholics, but it soon became apparent that codependent behaviour was far more prevalent in the general population than had previously been imagined. Research found that you might display codependent traits if, for example, you were raised in a dysfunctional family or had an ill parent, and that it didn’t necessarily relate to addiction or alcoholism.
The good news is that codependency can be healed.
The following is a list of symptoms of codependency and being in a codependent relationship. It is not exhaustive, and you don’t need to have them all to qualify as codependent.
Feeling that you’re not good enough or comparing yourself to others are signs of low self-esteem. Guilt and perfectionism are often intertwined with low self-esteem.
Some codependents have a hard time saying no, because of the anxiety that accompanies that process. You may go out of your way and sacrifice your own needs to accommodate other people, for fear of rejection.
You may feel responsible for other people’s feelings and problems or place the responsibility for your own on someone else. Conversely some codependents have rigid boundaries which make them seem unapproachable or withdrawn. Often people flip back and forth between the two. It is a painful and exhausting relational style but you can work on your interpersonal skills and recover.
Perhaps the most well-known of the codependency traits is caretaking. It’s natural to feel empathy and sympathy for someone that is struggling, but if you are suffering from codependency you may find yourself focusing on fixing someone else’s problems to the detriment of your own life.
None of us want to live in constant uncertainty and chaos, but codependency and the need to exert control may be limiting your ability to take risks and share feelings. Interestingly control is not always exerted in the traditional sense – people-pleasing and care-taking can be used to control and manipulate people very effectively.
Codependency can leave you in a painful place where you are afraid of being rejected or abandoned. You may feel that you need to be in a relationship and find it hard to leave relationships even when they are painful or unhealthy.
If you are codependent you may find it really challenging to be in an intimate relationship. You may find yourself struggling with fear of abandonment and fear of being judged to the point that it is really difficult to be yourself. This is obviously a really painful and unhelpful way of relating to other people. Through skills training, and interpersonal group you can build resilience and assertiveness and get on the path to long term recovery.
Codependency creates stress and difficult emotions like shame, fear, and low self-esteem or anger, resentment and hopelessness. But you can recover, at Banbury Lodge we can facilitate recovery and change for people who are codependent.
If you choose to become a client at Banbury Lodge for sex and love addiction we will do our upmost to:
Our approach is:
If you are struggling with sex and love addiction we are here to help. Call us now to find out more about our tailored therapeutic programmes.
We hope that when the time comes for you to move on from treatment at Banbury Lodge you will be feeling a mixture of pride and excitement. Through hard work you will have built a great basis for this new, sober phase of your life.
At Banbury we know that people can feel vulnerable to relapse in the first weeks and months after leaving rehab. But rest assured you will not have to do this alone. We are committed to providing ongoing care and will work to minimize the risk of relapse by providing a supportive and comprehensive aftercare package consisting of:
Before you leave Banbury you will have developed a thorough relapse prevention plan, with the help of your peers and your counsellor. This plan will include steps to take when you find yourself in triggering situations such as phoning a friend in recovery, attending a local support group, or calling us at Banbury Lodge. You will also be equipped to understand when you are becoming at risk, through becoming mindful of your processes you can stop relapse in its tracks and choose a different path.
Rehab at Banbury Lodge will equip you with a wide selection of skills and tools for not only dealing with the urge to relapse, but also for building a life that you really do love.
Calls and contact requests are answered by admissions at
UK Addiction Treatment Group.
We look forward to helping you take your first step.
0808 163 9632