Therapy Gecko – Episode: "I'M ADDICTED TO LOVE"

Date: September 14, 2025
Host: Geck (Lyle Forever)
Podcast: Therapy Gecko (iHeartPodcasts)

Overview

In this lively, reflective, and heartfelt episode, Therapy Gecko takes calls from three individuals exploring issues related to addiction, relationships, resilience, and the search for meaning. Geck, the unlicensed “lizard psychologist,” uses his signature blend of humor, empathy, and irreverence to delve into his callers' experiences—whether it’s a recovering addict wrestling with love addiction, a young woman adjusting to progressive vision loss, or a globetrotting student seeking meaning after attaining his dream.

Caller 1: Sterling — Addicted to Love (and More)

[02:48 – 22:03]

Key Discussion Points & Insights

• Sterling's Background and Addictions:

  • Sterling describes himself as being in recovery for five months, clean from fentanyl and opiates, but still struggling with "addictions" to sex, love, and women. He refers to his addictive pattern with the acronym "SLOW" (Sex, Love, Opiates, Women).
  • He notes his codependency, constant need for communication and female attention, and describes it as “an addiction to attention.”
  • Sterling identifies with behaviors like talking to multiple women at once and being deeply affected by "ghosting."

• Therapy, Codependency, and Sobriety:

  • He shares his upbringing as a latchkey kid and connects these childhood experiences with current issues seeking validation and companionship.
  • Sterling’s therapist is perplexed by his ability to give up opiates but not the need for romantic attention.
  • His recovery includes active volunteer work—Heroin Anonymous, AA, working with special needs, volunteering at kitten adoptions—which he credits with supporting his sobriety.

• Sex vs. Substance Use: Emotional Sobriety:

  • Sterling discusses trying “Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous,” his discomfort with extreme stories there, and the difference between abstaining from substances vs. relationships.
  • The conversation explores what defines sexual addiction and whether preoccupation with sex is universal or problematic only at certain thresholds.
  • Geck and Sterling muse on the biological imperatives of sex and love, and society’s attempt to "sterilize" messy human emotions through therapy.

• Looking Forward and Filling the Void:

  • Sterling expresses ambition to focus on himself, echoing the idea that “you can't love somebody until you truly love yourself,” and acknowledges how lost love had previously triggered self-sabotaging behavior like relapse.
  • Both reflect on the universality of “filling the hole”—through love, drugs, friendship, or achievement.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Addictive Patterns:
  “My drugs of choice are SLOW – sex, love, opiates, women. And I really only abstain from the opiates.”
  – Sterling, [03:35]

• On Seeking Attention:
  “I grew up alone a lot... So, it's like I seek attention because I didn't have it as a kid, which I feel like a lot of people do.”
  – Sterling, [03:44]

• On Emotional Sobriety:
  “Anytime I would, like, have sex with somebody or even just talk to people, they call it acting out, right?”
  – Sterling, [09:24]

• Geck's Perspective on Love and Therapy:
  “You know, there's something very sterile in all of this... Life is not sterile. It's beyond our attempts to sterilize it with therapeutic whatever.”
  – Geck, [15:25]

• On Universality of Filling Voids:
  “Isn't a lot of life filling a hole? Like, is having friends filling a hole? Is achieving things? It's all filling a hole of some kind.”
  – Geck, [18:54]

• Closing Slogan:
  “It's better to be a dopeless hope addict than a hopeless dope addict.”
  – Sterling, [21:27]

Caller 2: Jessica — Navigating Life with Progressive Blindness

[25:56 – 53:46]

Key Discussion Points & Insights

• Diagnosis and Living with Stargardt Disease:

  • Jessica, age 19, is going blind due to Stargardt disease, a rare genetic disorder. She describes fluctuating central vision and the eventual loss of all but peripheral sight.

• Challenges of Visibility (“Invisible” Disability) and Bullying:

  • Jessica recounts being bullied in high school because peers didn’t believe she was blind, especially since symptoms weren't always visibly apparent.
  • She conveys the alienation, harassment, and issues of trust this caused, and its lasting emotional impact.
  • Her story includes a striking anecdote:
    “I swung at her, and, well, I missed. So, you know... what does that tell you?”
    – Jessica, [40:04]

• Communities: Blind Camps and Friendship:

  • Jessica highlights the value of blind camps for children and teenagers, government-funded programs that teach independent living skills, braille, technology, and facilitate social connections.
  • She shares comical and poignant stories from camp, touching on drama, social hierarchies (or lack thereof), and how other senses do not automatically become heightened—you have to “learn to utilize those things.”

• Pursuing a Career:

  • Despite her disability, Jessica is determined to become a nurse, pursuing an LPN program with support from family and friends.

• Friendship and Difficult People:

  • Jessica talks about a “frenemy” named Natalie, exploring the emotional complexity of adolescent friendships and letting go of anger as she matures.

• Advocacy and Perspective:

  • She stresses the need for compassion and understanding around disabilities:
    “Just, you know, everyone be nice. Just be nice to disabled people. I feel like people are either overly nice or they're overly ignorant.”
    – Jessica, [53:17]

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Resilience:
  “I hope one day these people that harassed me will realize what they had done—and that blindness is a spectrum.”
  – Jessica, [41:39]

• On Learning Skills:
  “It's not like you go blind and suddenly you have a heightened sense of touch, smell, hearing. You have to learn to utilize those things.”
  – Jessica, [37:28]

• Humor at Blind Camp:
  “My group started building the Twin Towers, the plane, and the Pentagon... the 9/11 jokes went crazy at the second blind camp I went to.”
  – Jessica, [44:49]

• On Letting Go of Teenage Drama:
  “One day you'll be an old lady... you'll realize that when you were 17, not only were you incredibly immature and stupid, but everyone around you was, too... You can either recognize that and let go of your anger now, or hold onto it forever and die.”
  – Geck, [48:15]

Caller 3: Jared — Chasing Dreams, The Bittersweetness of Achievement

[57:22 – 74:26]

Key Discussion Points & Insights

• Phases of Fulfillment and What Comes “After the Dream”:

  • Jared shares his recent achievement of landing a job in New York City—a dream he’d held since first visiting in 2019.
  • He notes a subsequent feeling of “what’s next?”, having spent years fixated on this goal.

• Life Transitions, Travel, and Living Fully:

  • Jared is in a transitional period: wrapping up graduate school in North Carolina, planning travels before relocating to NYC.
  • The pair reflect on the unique, transient joys of student life, and the importance (yet futility) of trying to savor passing moments.

• Romantic Serendipity and Movie Moments:

  • Jared describes a “movie-script” encounter: reconnecting as an adult with a woman he's known of since childhood, only to have to leave soon after forming a connection.

• Travel, Bucket Lists, and the Search for Meaning:

  • Much of Jared’s fulfillment comes through travel; both he and Geck discuss the unending allure of exploring the world—even acknowledging there’s “probably a lot of places I’ll die not having gone to.”
  • Geck notes with age, his circle of caring narrows, but travel remains a lasting passion.

• Philosophy of Enjoyment and Letting Go:

  • The conversation closes with mutual recognition of life’s fleetingness. Geck reminds Jared:
    “Whether you enjoy it or you don’t enjoy it, it passes anyway. So I guess might as well enjoy it. You can never hold onto anything. It always escapes your grip.”
    – Geck, [72:50]

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Realization After Achievement:
  “It was, like, so surreal... I finally accomplished this dream... and right now I’m just kind of like, all right, what else is next?”
  – Jared, [58:48]

• On Travel’s Lasting Value:
  “That’s the one thing I’ll just continue to do—traveling and seeing stuff. So I’m with you on that.”
  – Geck, [66:25]

• On Savoring Fleeting Moments:
  “That’s the weird thing about life—it’s very transient and you try to make sure that you can enjoy things while you can. But also... whether you enjoy it or you don’t... it passes anyway.”
  – Geck, [72:50]

Memorable Moments & Themes (with Timestamps)

• On Biological Drives and Therapy Sterility:
  “[The biological] meaning of life is to have sex... there’s something very sterile in all of this. Life is not sterile.”
  – Geck, [14:44], [15:25]

• “If someone is down to clown, we're going to the circus.”
  – Sterling, [11:34]

• On High School Bullying and Resilience:
  “I swung at her, and, well, I missed. So, you know what does that tell you?”
  – Jessica, [40:04]

• Blind Camp Humor
  “My group started building the Twin Towers, the plane, and the Pentagon...”
  – Jessica, [44:49]

• On Achieving and Letting Go:
  “Whether you enjoy it or you don't... it passes anyway. So I guess might as well enjoy it.”
  – Geck, [72:50]

Summary Table of Callers

| Caller | Main Topic(s) | Key Quote | Timestamp | |-----------|-----------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|-------------| | Sterling | Love addiction, recovery, self-work| "My drugs of choice are SLOW—sex, love, opiates, women." | 03:35 | | Jessica | Disability, bullying, resilience | “Just be nice to disabled people.” | 53:17 | | Jared | Dreams, travel, new life phases | “I finally accomplished this dream... what’s next?”| 58:48 |

Tone & Style

The episode skillfully blends irreverent humor, candor, and genuine care. Geck’s offbeat, inquisitive probing—often turning to therapeutic meta-commentary—gives callers space to reflect. Vivid anecdotes and sharp one-liners keep the mood buoyant even when topics are heavy.

Essentially, this episode is a meditation on how we seek connection and meaning, how we heal, and how we move forward—sometimes by filling our holes with more holes, but, hopefully, with as many positive things as possible.

Further Listening

• Listeners interested in codependency, addiction, overcoming bullying, and finding one's path through adversity will find the episode especially resonant.
• The episode’s candid caller stories exemplify why Therapy Gecko stands out: unfiltered, oddly moving, and never quite what you expect.