Time for a Tolle.

This seems pertinent to a lot of what I've been seeing come up in the office of late:

"Every addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain. Whatever the substance you're addicted to- alcohol, food, legal or illegal drugs, or a person - you are using something or somebody to cover up your pain" - Eckhart Tolle.

The underlying process in talk therapy is unconvering pain at its root... through the layers to the  original pain, and then finding a way to  feel and move through it, and to make  make narrative meaning of it. That's most often the process for most people. There are a lot of false pains and compartments... the unearthing is an endeavor. But it's ultimately to uncover and then move through pain. Life is many things, all made more difficult by undigested pain. There's that old notion that we create new pain to avoid old pain with the hopes that the old pain is pushed so far down it's made mute. I've yet to see this work for someone. It can never find quiet until it's released. It's fairly easy to identify the pain at it's root... it takes skill to get there. Reading a map and walking through a jungle are very separate endeavors.