"She goes from one addiction to another. All are ways for her to not feel her feelings"

Ellen Burstyn’s observation points to the complex patterns underlying addictive behaviors. The statement focuses on a woman who cycles through different addictions, these can be substances like alcohol, drugs, or seemingly less dangerous habits such as work, relationships, food, or even excessive exercise. Each addiction is not an isolated issue but a symptom of a deeper struggle. Burstyn’s words imply that the real pain is not simply the presence of these habits, but what they keep buried, a cascade of emotions that remain unprocessed, hidden under layers of distraction and numbness.

The phrase “goes from one addiction to another” highlights how sobriety from one vice does not necessarily resolve the underlying emotional turmoil; often it simply shifts elsewhere. This ‘addiction swap’ occurs because the actual root is emotional discomfort or pain, not the external substance or habit itself. Without confronting the core feelings, grief, anger, fear, loneliness, there remains a void, one that demands to be filled. Addictions become coping strategies, smokescreens shielding the person from vulnerability and internal chaos.

Burstyn’s insight suggests empathy for those caught in addiction’s cycle. To outsiders, it may seem that there is a lack of willpower or accountability, but the truth is more complicated. People are often desperately seeking relief from feelings that seem overwhelming or intolerable. The mention of “not feeling her feelings” reveals a key truth about healing: genuine recovery and personal growth can only occur through courageously facing one’s emotions, however painful.

Healing, then, demands more than abstaining from addictive behaviors. It requires cultivating awareness, honesty, and self-compassion, practices that allow suppressed feelings to surface and be integrated. Only in feeling can one begin to heal, rather than repeatedly escape through new distractions. Burstyn’s words are a call to understand addiction not just as a problem, but as an attempted solution to emotional suffering.