Understanding Addiction

…by Shaun Shelly… I just pulled into a lodge in Banff, Canada at 2 AM (roughly noon for me) after a flight delay and missed shuttle. I’m way too tired to introduce this intelligently. All I can say is that I have huge respect for Shaun’s understanding of what goes on in opiate addiction, both […] (Read the rest.)

The heroin “epidemic” is a major concern all over the world right now. What are the various philosophies for dealing with it? In today’s post I’ll share some impressions from my recent visit to a harm reduction/methadone clinic in Belgium. Then I’ll post a piece by Percy Menzes who is dedicated to the use of […] (Read the rest.)

Here’s an article I wrote for The Guardian a few weeks ago. This link will take you right there. And while you’re there, check out some of its neighbours in The Guardian’s Autocomplete series. These articles try to provide quick, neat answers to the deep questions we often pose to Google. Or, in their words: […] (Read the rest.)

Three posts ago, I discussed the personality traits that make us most vulnerable to addiction. And I promised to say more about them. Most experts agree that the two biggees are…. (1) an impulsive or risk-taking personality style (2) an anxious, oversensitive personality style Note once again that there is nothing like a standard “addictive […] (Read the rest.)

Will a developmental-learning model of addiction (e.g., Maia Szalavitz, Gabor Maté , Stanton Peele, and me) ever make peace with the disease model? That would be a happy ending! Nora Volkow and I could eat muffins together…or maybe have a glass of wine. We could establish a space for sharing data and ideas, working together […] (Read the rest.)