Welcome to the Commune podcast. My name is Jeff Krasno. Why do we develop addictive behaviors?

Well, as an ex-drug and sex addict, comedian and spiritualist Russell Brand knows a lot about the source of addiction. Russell posits that addiction

is synonymous with disconnection. In this shortcast, Russell shares the wisdom he gained through

19 years of recovery, including how the 12-step program can help relieve suffering, the commonalities between addiction and meditation,

and why we need community in order to heal.

A shortcasts are 10 to 15-minute versions of longer commune podcasts created in collaboration with Blinkist.

You can find the full-length version of this

episode linked in the show notes. I hope you enjoy this condensed version of Russell Brand's

insights. Today we're talking about addiction.

Now, when you think of addiction, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?

Tobacco, alcohol, opioids, heroin, crack. Those are the most obvious ones, but our addictions

don't end here.

Codependency, toxic relationships, work, you know, you can deny it all the live long day.

There are dozens of more insidious ways in which we form unhealthy attachments.

According to one study from 2014, researchers estimate that 6% of the world's population is addicted to the internet.

That's 420 million people.

Addiction is a behavior that you would like to stop and when you try to, you cannot.

All forms of addiction, even the subtler ones, like wanting to be liked all the time, are signals that there's something you are missing, that there's a part of you that needs to be fed and nurtured.

Addiction begins with pain and it ends with pain. You are in pain, you practice whatever it is you do to get you away from the pain, whether it's pornography or food or sex or drugs,

and then it leads to more pain and then the cycle begins again.

This is Russell Brand.

Russell is an actor and comedian and a spiritualist.

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