Cognitive addictions are a powerful way to avoid feelings. I lived in my head for years. I was a university professor. Thinking can be a way to avoid feelings. All addictions have a thinking component, which is called obsession. ~ John Bradshaw, Homecoming: Reclaiming and Healing Your Inner Child

A thinking component which is called obsession.
That’s the kind of argument that says you can’t be too dumb
to recover…but you can be too smart. At least
you can think too much. Why would that work?
Why should I do that? I’m past that point,
educated, intelligent. That’s for the peons, 
the simple, the ones who don’t understand. 
No, it’s the simple who actually find recovery easiest!
Like Jesus said, let the little children come
and don’t stop them. You must become like a young child,
a newborn, to enter the kingdom. Keep it simple, stupid.
And stupid doesn’t refer to the simple minded
but to those who would complicate it, “perfect” it,
improve on it. We can’t successfully live in our heads.
When we try, we become like robots, empowered only by hot air.
Set aside the thinking. Listen, respond, believe, become.