What awareness is necessary when dealing with issues of addiction? We believe the problem is not alcohol, drugs, food, sex, or gambling; but instead these are symptoms of a deeper psychic or emotional malady. Substances often serve as a faulty attempt to cure this malady which may stem from an emotional wound, disappointment or disconnection. Addiction is often labeled as weakness, when it actually represents at once an ignorance or fear of dealing with the underlying pain and also a desire to rise above the eternal nature of human suffering. Therefore, the therapeutic alliance can potentially serve as a slow descent toward the malady, then facing it with an expanding source of light until the darkness and pain gradually become integrated into conscious understanding, serving to reduce or expel its destructive power.