Mumtaliʾ bil-Faraghممتلئ بالفراغ

We were simply running away from ourselves. We used food, pornography, sex, relationships, shopping, and immersion in our phones to alter our state of mind—as painkillers for a deep-seated pain we might not even have been aware of. We used them to fill an inner void that had taken root early on, to tend to a trauma that caused a rift in our very language—a wound we could only treat by distracting ourselves through compulsive behavior. Addiction was our silent scream, our stifled anguish, and our suppressed moan. Here is a roadmap for stopping this flight from ourselves.