For me, over the last ten years, it has become very clear that the toxic shame ingrained in my brain, from early childhood maltreatment, is at the core of my addictive behaviours.
Over the next weeks I will be posting on the role of shame in addictive behaviour and how to address shame in recovery.
This video is the fifth out of six videos and brilliantly describes how shame activates and maintains addictive behaviours – I urge you to watch all of these videos.
I liked his comment about guilt being “I did something bad” and shame “I am bad”. Thanks for the post.
I think he is spot on that (some Ernie Kurtz on this topic tomorrow too). I will be posting in the new few weeks here and especially on http://insidethealcoholicbrain.com/ about shame being a “master emotion” that exerts influence on all other emotions and up there with fear in the harm it causes. Psychology has finally realised the varying and fundamental influence of shame on various disorders and pathologies such as addiction.
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The Alcoholics Guide to Alcoholism 
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