Adolescent addiction, whether to substances such as alcohol or nicotine or to digital activities such as gaming and social media, has become a major public health concern, with implications for emotional well being, relationships, and long term development. While a great deal is known about the biological, cognitive, and social correlates of addictive behaviors, much less is understood about the subjective experiences that make some adolescents particularly vulnerable over time. In my lab, we focus on this missing layer by studying a core psychological experience we term the Sense of Absence (SoA). The SoA refers to a felt sense of inner emptiness, emotional disconnection, and being present but unseen by others, and we conceptualize it as a bridge between relational difficulties and the emergence or persistence of addictive behaviors. Our research suggests that when adolescents struggle to feel recognized, engaged, and meaningfully connected, addictive behaviors may serve as compensatory attempts to regulate these painful experiences. Using large scale data and advanced analytic methods, we have found that the SoA occupies a central position in adolescents’ psychological networks, linking relational distress with a wide range of addictive behaviors. A first article from the lab has already been published on the development and validation of this construct and its measurement tool: Efrati, Y., and Potenza, M. N. (2026), “Feeling Unseen”: Generation and Psychometric Validation of a Scale Assessing Sense of Absence, Journal of Behavioral Addictions, online first.