Why One Addiction Often Turns Into Another

If you’ve ever quit one addiction only to find another creeping in, you’re not alone. It’s not about willpower—it’s about an underlying need for relief that hasn’t been addressed. This article explores why addictions overlap or “switch,” and what lasting recovery requires.

“There is one addiction process …” Gabor Maté

If you’ve struggled with addiction, you already know this truth: it’s rarely just one thing.

Someone might stop drinking, only to start overeating. Or quit cocaine, but find themselves compulsively scrolling, gambling, shopping, or chasing intense relationships. It can feel confusing, discouraging, and even shame-inducing—especially when you’re working hard to “get better.”

But this pattern is incredibly common, and it isn’t a sign of failure. It’s often a sign that the underlying addiction process hasn’t been addressed yet.

Co-Occurring vs. Switching Addictions

Gabor Maté, author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, describes addiction as one core process that can show up in many forms: substance use, disordered eating, shopping, gambling, compulsive internet use, sexual behaviors, or workaholism.

Ask most people who struggle with addiction whether there’s more than one thing involved, and the answer is usually yes.

These patterns are often described as:

• Co-occurring addictions (or cross addictions): when multiple addictive or compulsive behaviors happen at the same time

• Switching addictions: when stopping one addiction leads to an increase in another

Either way, the message is the same: the problem isn’t really the substance or behavior itself—it’s what the substance or behavior is doing for the person.

The Real Reason Addictions Multiply

Addiction isn’t usually about chasing pleasure. More often, it’s about escaping pain—or trying to manage what’s happening inside the body.

This is where a nervous-system lens becomes essential.

Many addictive behaviors are attempts to shift uncomfortable internal states: tension, agitation, emptiness, shame, loneliness, panic, numbness, or overwhelm. These are interoceptive experiences—signals and sensations rising from within.

When someone doesn’t have other ways to regulate these internal states, the brain learns: “This works. This changes how I feel.”

And that’s how the addiction process takes root.

Why Behavioral Addictions Count (and Why They’re Often Overlooked)

For a long time, addiction was viewed mainly as substance-based. But that model doesn’t match what clinicians and families see every day.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) now includes behavioral addictions in its broader definition of addiction as a chronic disorder, not just a problem of substances. This includes behaviors such as:

• gambling

• compulsive buying

• compulsive sexual behaviors

• disordered eating

• compulsive internet use

These behaviors can activate the brain’s reward system in ways that look strikingly similar to substance use. Over time, the same patterns tend to develop:

• continued use despite negative consequences

• loss of control

• excessive time spent engaging

• craving and preoccupation

• tolerance (needing more for the same effect)

• withdrawal-like distress when stopping

In other words, the brain doesn’t always distinguish between a chemical and a behavior if both reliably change internal state.

Common Cross-Addiction Patterns

Some pairings show up frequently:

• Cocaine and compulsive sexual behavior

• Alcohol and gambling

• Cannabis and excessive gaming

• Substance use and disordered eating

Many people also develop compulsive behaviors during early recovery. Someone stops drinking and suddenly finds themselves overeating, scrolling for hours, shopping impulsively, or working nonstop. This can be alarming—but it often reflects the nervous system reaching for regulation wherever it can find it.

The Role of Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

In my years working in a residential addiction treatment centre, one thing became very clear: people don’t develop addictions by accident.

Addiction is very often rooted in unresolved trauma, chronic stress, or early adversity.

Adverse childhood experiences and trauma can disrupt the brain and nervous system in ways that affect:

• self-control

• impulse regulation

• emotional awareness

• threat sensitivity

• the ability to self-soothe

When the nervous system becomes wired for survival, the body can feel chronically unsafe. Over time, substances and compulsive behaviors become tools for relief—not because someone is weak, but because their system is doing what it learned to do to cope.

How Addictions Feed Off Each Other

Patrick Carnes, a leading expert in sexual addiction, highlights a crucial truth: when addictions overlap, chaos intensifies. Each behavior adds consequences, shame, secrecy, and dysregulation—making recovery more difficult unless the entire situation is addressed.

He explains several common ways addictions interact:

1) Numbing

One behavior causes activation, and another is used to suppress it. For example, someone engages in compulsive sexual behavior and then uses alcohol or opioids to numb the shame or intensity afterward.

2) Disinhibiting

A substance is used to lower inhibitions, allowing another behavior to occur. For example, drinking to engage in risky sexual behavior or using stimulants to stay awake while gambling.

3) Intensification

Two addictions are combined because neither is sufficient on its own. For example, using cocaine or meth to enhance sexual experience.

4) Replacement

One addiction ends, and another emerges in its place with the same level of intensity. For example, stopping alcohol use and developing disordered eating or compulsive spending.

5) Alternating cycles

The focus shifts back and forth between substances and behaviors over time. For example, alternating between alcohol and stimulants or cycling between restriction, bingeing, and substance use.

What Recovery Needs to Include

The traditional view of addiction—one substance, one problem—is no longer helpful. It doesn’t reflect how addiction actually works for many people.

Co-occurring addictions aren’t separate problems. They’re often different expressions of the same underlying struggle: a nervous system that has learned to rely on external regulation because internal regulation feels out of reach.

This is why recovery often stalls when someone addresses only one behavior, without building the deeper skills underneath:

• learning to tolerate discomfort without panic

• recognizing emotions as body-based signals

• rebuilding self-regulation and body trust

• developing safer ways to shift internal state

• addressing trauma, attachment wounds, and shame

As Maté argues, there is “one addiction process.” And when we understand that process through a nervous-system lens, we stop asking, “Why can’t I just stop?” and start asking a more compassionate—and more accurate—question:

“What is my system trying to manage, and what does it truly need?”

Continue Exploring

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The ways that addiction can gradually reshape identify and self-understanding.

Why regulation can feel difficult even when we want relief.