Not every repeated behavior is an addiction, and not every coping strategy requires a recovery program. But when a strategy becomes dominant, hard to stop or control, and begins shaping your life, the question is no longer whether it looks like someone else’s addiction. The question is whether it is costing you freedom.

Relapse is predictable when addiction is misunderstood. If addiction is a strategy used to manage internal discomfort, then recovery has to address more than the addictive behavior. It has to address what addiction was trying to manage.