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iQuestions Faculty, Dr. David Eckman 
 
 
Question: 
 
Do people just have one addiction and that’s it? 
 
Answer: 
 
Typically, addiction comes in pairs, or in threes. A common joke is, 
“You can always find the AA meeting by looking for the people 
smoking outside of a church.” Why? Because what happens, often as 
not, is when a person is leaving alcohol, they embrace another 
addiction for the pain in their life. It is pain that drives addiction. 
 
So, a person may shift an addiction, but that does not mean that the 
pain is being addressed. The ultimate quest is one of relationships, and 
one of dealing with pain in the life. But, it’s been a common truism 
that researchers have found that addictions come in twos or threes.  
 
Someone who may be struggling with pornography may also be 
struggling with food. The reason is that the real challenge is 
addressing the addictive cycle that drives whatever the addictive 
behavior is. It’s easy enough to switch addictions, to go from 
alcoholism to workaholism. That is not a solution.  
 
The ultimate solution is coming to terms with pain in the life, coming 
to terms with the quality of relationships that I sustain, coming to 
terms with how I view myself, how I view others, how I view life. 
Those are the core issues behind addictive behavior. 
 
To download a printable version of this transcript, click here.