AACE Metrix

09/03/2026

Putting life back together can feel overwhelming — but support is available. 🧩

The AACE Metrix Program is a structured, confidential outpatient program designed to support people who may be experiencing challenges with alcohol or other substances. Our approach is evidence-based and delivered by qualified clinicians with experience in addiction treatment.

The program is designed to fit around work and family commitments, providing a private pathway for people seeking professional support.

If you’re considering support for yourself or someone close to you, you can learn more or contact our team for information.

📞 1800 468 001
🌐 www.aacemetrix.com.au

26/02/2026

The word "addiction" is derived from a Latin term for "enslaved by" or "bound to." Anyone who has struggled to overcome an addiction — or has tried to help someone else to do so — understands why.

Addiction exerts a long and powerful influence on the brain that manifests in three distinct ways: craving for the object of addiction, loss of control over its use, and continuing involvement with it despite adverse consequences.

While overcoming addiction is possible, the process is often long, slow, and complicated. It took years for researchers and policymakers to arrive at this understanding.

In the 1930s, when researchers first began to investigate what caused addictive behavior, they believed that people who developed addictions were somehow morally flawed or lacking in willpower.

Overcoming addiction, they thought, involved punishment or, alternately, encouraging them to muster the will to break a habit.

The scientific consensus has changed since then. Today we recognize addiction as a chronic condition that changes both brain structure and function.

Just as cardiovascular disease damages the heart and diabetes impairs the pancreas, addiction hijacks the brain.

Recovery from addiction involves willpower, certainly, but it is not enough to "just say no" — as a famous 1980s slogan suggested.

Instead, people typically use multiple strategies — including psychotherapy, group therapy and self-care — as they try to break the grip of an addiction.

Another shift in thinking about addiction has occurred as well. For many years, experts believed that only alcohol and powerful drugs could cause addiction.

Neuroimaging technologies and more recent research, however, have shown that certain pleasurable activities, such as gambling, shopping, and s*x, can also co-opt the brain.

Although the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) describes multiple addictions, each tied to a specific substance or activity, consensus is emerging that these may represent multiple expressions of a common underlying brain process.

17/02/2026

This is recovery.

15/02/2026

🔹Relapse Warning Signs - by Addiction Actually🔹
🔹 By recognising these signs you may have a better chance to guard against relapse.🔹

🔹 1. Mental changes
🔹 2. Attitude changes
🔹 3. Behaviour changes

🔹 Scientific research tells us that relapse is a process consisting of three disintegrating phases: emotional, mental, and, finally, physical -- the point at which we cross over from high relapse risk - to actual relapse. Whether this is drugs/alcohol or behavioural/process addictions.

🔹 Throughout these phases there are plenty of warning signs - or red flags that something is not quite right, or something is definitely wrong with our recovery.

🔹 Warning sings reveal themselves as our inability to cope with our emotions, with changes in our thinking, attitudes and behaviours in recovery that -- if left unaddressed -- lead us straight back to active addiction.

🔹 Often relapse happens because we ignore these signs, preferring to believe the quality of our recovery is not suffering.

🔹 Based on the fact that we are not using drugs, drinking, gambling and so forth , we delude ourselves that we have nothing to worry about, that we are safe. Immune almost to relapse.

🔹 On the other hand, if we become aware of what is happening to us through recognizing these warning signs/red flags, then we can make healthy choices and take recovery measures to stop the process developing into a full blown relapse.

🔹 As a reminder of awareness and vigilance, the image in this post is a summary of the common changes that lead us down the slippery slope. It highlights changes in our thinking, directly to using again.

🔹 This is important learning point as no one is guaranteed to survive a relapse.

🔹 - Addiction Actually. December 2025. All rights reserved.
Image Credit : Hamrah Addiction Booklet.


🔹

31/01/2026

Addiction Actually - Expectations v. Reality.

25/01/2026

And this is recovery

24/01/2026

Addiction can take many forms. The underlying issues are often related to shame, guilt and sometimes trauma.

We now know that quitting one addiction successfully often results in developing another. This is not often recognised and often the link (s) is not made by the individual or those around them.

15/01/2026

If you are wanting to learn more visit our website aacemetrix.com.au or book in for an Information Session with Heather Marrapodi through the website or call: 1800 468 001.

01/01/2026

01/01/2026

30/12/2025

Ready for a clearer start to the year?
The AACE Metrix Program provides structured, evidence-based support for people wanting to make changes around addiction.
Join our program to learn practical tools and stay connected to your goals.

If you’d like to learn more about how the program works, eligibility, or what to expect, you can contact us directly or visit our website.
1800 468 001 | www.aacemetrix.com.au

27/12/2025

Kickstart 2026 with the Metrix Program—evidence-based support to rebuild your life physically, emotionally, and socially.

$99 Trial available now!

Lock in 2025 pricing! Program fees increase in early 2026, but if you enrol before the end of the year, the intensive 20-week program stays at current rates—even if you continue into 2026.

📍 West Perth, WA
🌐 www.aacemetrix.com.au
📞 1800 468 001