Episode 17 - Addiction

Addiction isn’t always what people think it is. It’s not just chaos or rock bottom, or someone who’s completely lost control. Often, its much quieter than that. It can look like someone holding everything together on the outside, going to work, looking after family, but relying on something behind the scenes to help them cope.

At it’s core, addiction is rarely about the substance or the behaviour itself. It’s about relief. It’s about trying to soothe something that feels overwhelming, painful or hard to sit with. For some, it’s anxiety. For others it might be trauma, grief, loneliness or a deep sense of not feeling enough.

And the difficult part is…it works. At least in the short-term. That drink, that scroll, that habit - it gives a moment of escape, a pause, a sense of comfort or control. But over time, what started as a coping strategy can begin to take more than it gives.