The hourglass shape of addiction and recovery
As mentioned, I’ve started interviewing a subset of the people who responded to my request for biographical material. These people offered to share the stories of their lives as addicts. Most have...
View ArticleA personal note: diversity and its discontents
We had a bit of a blow-out in the comment section two posts ago. John (JLK) wrote a comment in which he made several claims about what addiction “really” is and provided a very specific recipe for how...
View ArticleMy visit to the land of 12 steps
I see a lot of comments rolling in on my recent post. That really makes my day. Or night, in this case: it’s currently just after 4 AM. Can’t sleep. I had an amazing two days in England just now,...
View ArticleNews flash: NA groups provide opioids for members!
You probably didn’t think it was possible. How could this be? It’s scandalous! Providing opioids for the very people who are trying so desperately to get off them. But since this is Week 2 of our...
View ArticleMemoir page: ready to go!
We are about to launch a “Guest Memoirs” page, as promised. Here is a description of the project, including details, benefits and risks, and the procedure for publishing your memoir. Anyone who wishes...
View ArticleStuck in time in 12 step recovery
By Persephone….. (This piece was sent to me by a member of this blog community, and I think it’s incredibly astute and revealing. As a developmental psychologist, I strongly agree that the recovery...
View ArticleA postscript to Persephone: 12-step recovery as prolonged PTSD
Hi all— Here’s an announcement before the main act: Please look at the Guest Memoirs page if you haven’t already. The first four memoirs are terrific, and hugely different. I hope that we’ll soon get...
View ArticleAll recovery is developmental — that’s how the brain works
In the last two posts – one by Persephone and one by me – we talked about the possibility that 12-step treatment offers a “static” rather than “developmental” approach to recovery. Persephone argued...
View ArticleAn unbelievable invitation
So I’m having this relatively uneventful week, doing a bit of homework for my Dutch lessons, preparing for a class I’ll be teaching next term, defrosting the freezer, debating with a publisher as to...
View ArticleBuddhism and neuroscience on the pitfalls of grasping
Last week I was trying to think like a Buddhist, in preparation… I thought about the self-reinforcing nature of “attachment” (à la Buddhism) and the self-reinforcing nature of addiction (which we all...
View ArticleWelcome Aussies!
For you Australians who’ve just come to visit this site, thanks for your interest! I’ve taken about a three-week break from blogging, but I’ll post again very soon. Meanwhile, you might want to catch...
View ArticleWhere mindfulness training meets up with addiction…in the brain
Following that invitation to meet with the Dalai Lama, I’ve been looking more into Buddhism and studies that link it with neuroscience – and with addiction. In one recent article, I learned that...
View ArticleResolving paradoxes to find the secret code of addictive behaviour
In my last post I explored the role of the default mode network in addiction. One conclusion was that addicts’ brains activate the default mode network more than the brains of nonaddicts. This brought...
View ArticleThe final stage: compulsion
This morning I woke up before the rest of my family. We’re in a hotel in Switzerland, on a ski holiday. Switzerland isn’t that far from our home in Holland, but I know that I’m a lucky guy. My life has...
View ArticleA beast with scales
Whenever I take a couple of weeks between postings I start to feel home-sick for my blog. I miss you guys. I miss having something to say to you — something that’s at least a bit thought-provoking and...
View ArticleWhat I meant was…
Hi again. Last post I argued that the growth of addictive behaviour takes place at several scales. A “real-time” scale of minutes or hours, approximately, and a much slower scale that we can properly...
View ArticleBehavioral addictions: You don’t need drugs or booze to be an addict
Hi from Hungary. I’m at a conference on behavioral addictions. Two days of talks by experts — psychologists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, clinical researchers, etc. — who want to understand...
View ArticleThe common denominator of all addictions
I said I’d use the next few posts to share what I learned at a recent conference on behavioral addictions. I should emphasize that the conference, held in Budapest, was billed as the the First...
View ArticleCousins, not twins
A few people commented on my last post that addiction was not the same as OCD. I agree: they’re connected, but they’re not the same. What I’ve been ruminating about is the related implication, that...
View ArticleDoes everything that starts off looking good have to end up being a mirage?
Those first puffs of pot were so rich, so sweet, so…promising. And that first hit of smack. Granted the needle stuff was a little rough, but can anything that feels this good actually be…um, bad? One...
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