Brain Science I was served my first taste of addiction brain science by the lead member of my advisory board in early 2009, and I was hooked. I just couldn’t get enough of it. (Pardon the word choice.) Bottom line, brain science is tremendously exciting, highly logical, constantly evolving and surprisingly easy to understand. And for that reason, it can…
What’s God Got To Do With It?
In the 21st century, when advanced imaging technology allows us to watch the addicted brain at work and cutting edge science promises high tech means to manage addiction symptoms by altering the brain, when the current treatment method already invokes the help of a higher power, why do we say that to recover fully from addiction, people first must come…
Why should you care anyway?
In the early days of my quest for a better way to treat addiction, one of the scientists helping me said the most valuable contribution I could make would be to come up with a definition of addiction that the different factions in the addiction industry could agree on. I thought he was joking. But as time went on, I…
Driven. Not Dysfunctioned!
In the complex field of addiction research and treatment, there are two constants that have shaped the course of the $400 billion addiction industry and the one million+ people it employs for more than seven decades. The first is the belief that a dysregulation, or impairment, of the brain’s mesolimbic dopamine system leads to substance abuse and other addictions. The second…
If Robin Williams Could Choose…
Robin Williams died last week and he will be missed greatly. The chronology of events leading to his death came together quickly, yet the puzzle remains incomplete. Williams had a history of substance abuse, but was said to have been sober for years. Last month he checked into a premier substance abuse treatment facility in Minnesota for their 12-step…
Never, never, never give up.
I lost track of how many times the experts told me it was time to give up; that she just wasn’t ready; that I needed to turn and walk away right then. They all said the same thing: When she finally hit bottom she’d come around. She’d accept the truth then, and so would I, that there is no escape…