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Addiction cannot be explained through medicine alone, even though its effect on the body is analogous to that of a disease. Addiction is a spiritual and an existential malaise, it is an illness that stems from a crisis of meaning in an individual and a crisis of identity.
The Living Room sums it up thus: Addiction is a flight from the self – a flight made necessary by the unbearable burden of aloneness. The addict’s childhood invariably plays a part, as children who are denied love or are punished for being authentic, grow up into adults with a desperation to fill an emotional vacuum within – a need answered by drugs, alcohol or other destructive behaviour.
