Going Deeper by Eddie Capparucci

Our inability to sit and experience emotional pain and discomfort got us into this mess. I have yet to meet someone who struggles with addiction (I am talking about all addictions) who can sit and process emotional pain. You hate emotional distress and will do ANYTHING to avoid it. In fact, you cut off many of your deepest emotions at an early age to avoid uncomfortable feelings. But look where that got us. Along with those around us, we have endured tremendous pain and heartache. If you think about it, it is ironic. As children and teens, we mastered avoiding painful feelings to cope, and now, we discover running away from emotional pain has done nothing but increase our pain points. If we had learned to deal with our emotional distress in healthy ways, we most likely would have avoided developing addictive behaviors. But here we are. So, there is no time like now to learn how to deal with those messy, uncomfortable emotions. (Pages 284-285)