Grizabella
Being both a recovering person who was addicted to many things including relationships, I feel like I can give insight first-hand about this.
One definition of addiction is doing the same thing over and over again that makes us feel good. Like Thirteen often points out, the 6 of Cups represents "known joy". We all need love and we tend to do whatever makes us feel loved whether it's healthy or not. We turn to it time and again even if we don't always get actual love. I was a battered woman, among other things, and my counselor explained to me that I was triggered by the words "I love you" because I was so emotionally starved. The people in my young life who told me they loved me abused me in just about every way there is, starting when I was a tiny baby, so the first 40 years of my life were very destructive. I was completely brainwashed by this so that I just never learned that love is expressed in loving actions. The words don't really mean much because talk is cheap. It's really too long a story to go into here, but I wanted to respond to this card combination.
This counselor also told me that when scientists were doing testing with rats, they found that if they gave the rats food every time a certain cue was given to them, of course they learned that if they did that one thing, food would appear. Then they started only giving the rats food randomly here and there and sometime not---they didn't know when they'd have the food if they pushed the button, but they got it sometimes. Then they discovered that, even if the rat never got food for pushing the button, they'd still keep coming back and pushing the button till they starved to death. That's how an abused person also reacts---they keep seeking love and they get it sometimes but sometimes not, so they end up with no healthy love at all, but they keep coming back. Tragically, this often ends in the death of the person who is abused.
I don't know if this had made much sense, but I hope it might make sense to someone.
One definition of addiction is doing the same thing over and over again that makes us feel good. Like Thirteen often points out, the 6 of Cups represents "known joy". We all need love and we tend to do whatever makes us feel loved whether it's healthy or not. We turn to it time and again even if we don't always get actual love. I was a battered woman, among other things, and my counselor explained to me that I was triggered by the words "I love you" because I was so emotionally starved. The people in my young life who told me they loved me abused me in just about every way there is, starting when I was a tiny baby, so the first 40 years of my life were very destructive. I was completely brainwashed by this so that I just never learned that love is expressed in loving actions. The words don't really mean much because talk is cheap. It's really too long a story to go into here, but I wanted to respond to this card combination.
This counselor also told me that when scientists were doing testing with rats, they found that if they gave the rats food every time a certain cue was given to them, of course they learned that if they did that one thing, food would appear. Then they started only giving the rats food randomly here and there and sometime not---they didn't know when they'd have the food if they pushed the button, but they got it sometimes. Then they discovered that, even if the rat never got food for pushing the button, they'd still keep coming back and pushing the button till they starved to death. That's how an abused person also reacts---they keep seeking love and they get it sometimes but sometimes not, so they end up with no healthy love at all, but they keep coming back. Tragically, this often ends in the death of the person who is abused.
I don't know if this had made much sense, but I hope it might make sense to someone.