When shame gets hold of desire it can run out of control and lead us on the path towards a very dangerous development: a hyper-focused attention on meeting a singular objective at the expense of any other meaningful goals. Or, what we commonly call addiction.
While the stigma around addiction may have lessened in recent years, labels such as "addict" and "normie" reveal a skewed understanding of how our brains work. The mechanisms for addiction are active in all of us and serve us well when properly engaged. Because of this, the recovering addict's journey of transformation may be just the roadmap each of us needs to discover a life of meaning and happiness.