From Codependency to Self-Discovery

with Thais Gibson (7 May 2025)

What a RICH interview between Ian Cron and Thais Gibson! Listeners will be rewarded with the plethora of insightful truths gained from this conversation. Both Cron and Gisbson have travelled out of addictions and moved beyond the heaviest of places and the darkest of paths. This interview reveals the psychological and spiritual wisdom they have both gained from their rocky journeys. They shrewdly discuss topics such as codependency, boundaries, attachment, anger, addiction, the enneagram, and spirituality.

 “If there is a real or perceived absence of soothing, safety, and being seen, then we might form a relationship with a person, a behavior, or a substance that serves as a proxy for a secure relationship. This is why I tell people early in sobriety, ‘You’re going to grieve the loss of a relationship here.’….the substance became the bigger problem than the problem it was trying to solve, which was your broken heart” – Cron

“What’s interesting…is how much every single behavior we do (in regards to addiction but just in general) is this subconscious strategy to try to get needs met and thus sooth.” – Gibson

“What needs does yelling get met and thus soothe for? You get seen and heard because you get big and loud. You often finally say things you’ve been holding in, so it’s an attempt to get understood, and we use anger as a subconscious strategy to set a boundary. So someone yells and all at once, in one fell swoop, they get these four needs met, and I never saw or worked with a single person with anger issues that first didn’t feel deeply unseen, unheard, misunderstood, and have boundary issues.” – Gibson

“Lest some of our audience thinks to themselves, ‘Oh these poor addicts and alcoholics,…I’ll pray for them,’ here’s what I say to you, WAKE up…because all of us have pathological, compulsive, unhealthy relationships with either a person, a behavior, or a substance that has mood altering affects and negative consequences.” – Cron

Listen to episode here