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iQuestions Faculty, Dr. David Eckman 
 
 
Question: 
 
Why do I feel that I can’t live without my addiction? 
 
Answer: 
 
There are many people who are struggling with addiction who feel they 
can’t live without it. That is a delusion, but a powerful one. 
 
The reason they have that delusion is because of how the mind’s 
chemistry works. As we go from a simple path of addictive behavior to 
a road, a super-highway in the mind, the more the mind gets revolving 
around some addictive behavior—be it pornography, be it food, be it 
work, be it a co-dependent relationship; whatever it is that’s 
possessing the mind’s thinking process and emotional process—after a 
period of time the person begins to feel like they’re almost living in a 
container, a railroad container car.  
 
And their whole world is that sensation, and the thinking that goes 
with a compulsive behavior, and after awhile they begin to forget what 
a normal, healthy day is like. And they buy into the illusion that all 
they are is the activity going on in their heart—the feelings, the 
sensations, the pictures, the thoughts.  
 
We’re vastly more than that. And that illusion is easy to puncture. Just 
send the person to Hawaii, and their mind will begin to actually 
embrace other things.  
 
But, that illusion is very, very powerful, and it needs to be challenged, 
it needs to be looked at. When a person gets to the point of saying, 
“All I am is my addiction,” they’re in big trouble. They need to start 
 
 
restructuring the heart and restructuring the life. But they’re still 
feeding on an illusion, a powerful and dangerous one. 
 
 
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