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iQuestions Faculty, Dr. David Eckman 
 
 
Question: 
 
What is the most significant part of the addictive cycle? 
 
Answer: 
 
The addictive cycle is important to understand. There are five parts to 
it.  
 
1. It starts out with unaddressed pain in the life  
2. The person steps into loneliness  
3. They step into a fantasy world that justifies whatever the 
behavior is that they are being grabbed by 
4. There’s a simple initiatory act, such as going to a store to buy 
ice cream, or turning on a computer 
5. And then there’s the acting out portion of it. 
 
This cycle is important to understand, but the most important part of 
the cycle is the middle, the fantasy world, because it’s in the fantasy 
world that justifies the person’s presence in the cycle.  
 
For a lot of people who are sexually addicted, they have the fantasy 
belief that they cannot exist without being swamped by their sexuality. 
Or the person who is struggling with food issues, they intuitively 
believe that calories don’t count, that being grossly overweight will not 
lead to medical problems, and that they need the food to comfort their 
heart. They’ve believed a false belief, which is that food is more 
comforting than people, or that sexuality mismanaged is more 
significant than healthy relationships.  
 
 
 
It’s that fantasy world that is the real challenge— and this actually 
should be a tremendous message of hope to you, because it’s saying 
that there are false beliefs that enslave people before they are 
enslaved by addiction.  
 
Grab a hold of those false beliefs, tear them apart, put truth in there, 
and you are well on your way to dealing with the addictive cycle. 
 
The most dangerous part is the fantasy world and its false beliefs.  
 
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