addiction emerges out of a lack of inner experience of intimacy with oneself, with God, with life, and with the moment.

loneliness goes beyond physical isolation; it's also the profound sense of emotional disconnection we feel from those around us. those surface-level conversations that leave you craving something deeper, the feeling of not being truly seen or heard, and the sting of having your heartfelt bids for connection dismissed or rejected.

Just as I have never met anyone who chose to become addicted, neither have I met anyone whose addictions did not, at their onset at least, provide for some essential human need.