Where this was said
Love Addiction, SLAA, and What the Podcast Started
At 1:15:02 · chapter starts 1:10:00
The discussion circles back to the emotional underpinnings of the manic marriage. Dax frames love and sex addiction as the best of all addictions — it keeps working until suddenly it doesn't — and Gage agrees completely: he stopped using substances and became addicted to romance instead. The most emotionally resonant moment of the episode arrives when Gage tells Dax that this podcast, specifically Dax's discussions of addiction, SLAA, and love addiction, was what led him to walk into an SLAA meeting. Dax's immediate reaction is to want to retire on the strength of that impact, before Lukas talks him out of it. Monica reflects that Gage had genuine love from his friends all along but couldn't access it because steady, reciprocated love doesn't produce the dopamine spike that chaotic obsession does. Gage describes giving the love he wanted and never quite being able to receive it.
