Amber HollingsworthRecovery Conversation Simulator, Amber's Recovery Practice Lab · Interactive learning tool trained on Amber methodoloy

Overloving Can Feed Addiction #addictionrecovery #boundaries #codependency #recoveryispossible

7 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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In this excerpt, Amber Hollingsworth explains how overparenting or "overloving" a person can erode their serotonin levels, which are essential for long‑term pleasure, pride, and recovery from addiction. Low serotonin drives the brain to seek dopamine spikes from substances, perpetuating addiction. She argues that enabling behaviors prevent the development of pride and self‑efficacy, and that creating a degree of unmanageability—allowing the individual to experience the consequences of their actions—is a counter‑intuitive but necessary step to shift addictive patterns. The speaker emphasizes the importance of setting clear boundaries to break codependent dynamics and restore the brain’s chemical balance.

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When we overparent or overlove, the other person's narrative is, I'm only functioning, or this is only happening because they're making it happen. And that is erosive of serotonin. And you guys know serotonin is one of the keys to overcoming addiction. If you don't have enough serotonin in your brain, which is a long-term pleasure chemical for pride, and if you're living at home alone, you're not doing a good job at work, but You're still getting paid. If you're taking money, if you're doing all the things we talked about at the very beginning, you don't have any pride. And so that guarantees chemically that addiction lives, because if the brain doesn't have enough of those long-term pleasure chemicals below the line, it will keep going above the line to get the dopamine that comes with drugs and alcohol. It has to, because our brain has to have these chemicals. So if we don't have the good kind, which addiction makes sure we don't have, then we will go get it. So again, we're feeding the disease by allowing these— some of these things and not creating some unmanageability. It feels counterintuitive. I totally get it, but it is the way to try to shift the boat. If we don't, we're not going to shift it at all.