"...addictive actions are the result of an emotional process – an attempted solution to feeling helplessly overwhelmed. Addictive behavior is therefore a symptom – a very destructive one, but a symptom nonetheless...
But the primary focus of any treatment must be on root causes, when we know how to treat them."
"Of course, good treatment never means ignoring addiction."
"...it is just those moments of feeling you have to get a drink, or eat, or gamble, that are the best opportunities to figure out the underlying emotional causes of the behavior and how addiction works in you."
"True, it’s tougher to measure internal emotional change."
"If measuring progress by the amount or frequency of addictive behavior is misguided and hurtful, how then do you know if you are making progress? If you are dealing with an addiction yourself, or in therapy, when you are able to see the themes in your life that always precipitate addictive feelings and are working to find ways to manage or resolve these themes when they arise, you are getting better."
