When dealing with addiction, whether you’re addicted to alcohol, drugs, porn, food, or whatever it is, one of the most effective ways to achieve recovery is by going all the way back to your inner child and figuring out what triggers your pain points so you can eventually take mindful action.

Author and licensed professional counselor, Eddie Capparucci, who specializes in the treatment of sex and pornography addiction, created the inner child recovery process to help people struggling with addiction. 

Eddie's father died when he was five and his mother who was left with four children had a nervous breakdown. All kids were then sent out to relatives they didn't even know and they stayed there for a year while she was recovering. Growing up, he found himself very isolated and developed an abandonment issue. With the early pain that he experienced with the loss of his father and his mother leaving him, Eddie was completely alone.

As early as 16 years old, Eddie felt he needed to have more than one woman in his life. When he married in his 20s, once again, he found himself looking outside the marriage for companionship and company, even though what he had in his marriage was fine. He was caught cheating and he decided to walk away from his marriage to seek therapy. It was after that when Eddie married his current wife now. He has been happily married for 23 years now and has been faithful the entire time after doing that work.

In this episode, Eddie discusses how healing our inner child plays a huge role in the road to addiction, and he specifically, outlines the nine different kinds of the inner child, and how the inner child impacts sexual addiction.

In this episode, you will hear:

• What having a sense of abandonment feels like
• Bringing your defense mechanisms as a child into the adult world
• Eddie’s recovery journey
• How the cycle of addiction works
• How the inner child recovery process works
• The nine different kinds of the inner child
• Being mindful of the triggers
• The power of slowing down
• Dealing with high-speed internet pornography

Key Quotes:

[02:58] - "The road to recovery for our addiction goes to our childhood."

[17:25] - "When you start to feel that ugliness within you... that just keeps you in the cycle. You go back to your addiction in order to forget and not feel. And that's the biggest problem." 

[17:42] - "One of the keys to dealing with sexual pornography addiction, or any addiction, is learning how to sit with that emotional pain, feel it, and understand that it's not going to kill you no matter how uncomfortable it is.”

[21:10] - “By recognizing the childhood pain points, we understand the triggers that activate those pain points. And then the next most important thing in this whole process is mindfulness.”

[23:54] - "You have to slow everything down... It's the compulsive behaviors that get us in the situation in the first place."

[37:23] - "There are a lot of great resources that are out there that you can tap into so that you can make those substantial changes in your life, and that you can finish strong."

If you really enjoyed this episode, we’ve created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at www.theaddictedmind.com to download it.

Supporting Resources:

www.innerchild-sexaddiction.com

https://abundantlifecounselingga.com

Connect with Eddie:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecapparucci 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/capparucci/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edcappa/ 
• Email: [email protected] 

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know we sent you.

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