Falling Trees, Color Blind Scientists, and Addiction explores the what and why’s of addiction. We present information on the devasting effect addiction has on individuals and families. Current information and research are offered to the reader in gaining a better understanding of the challenges individuals and families face. We explain the different faces of addiction and how difficult it can be to define addiction. Opinions and experiences can vary from person to person and from setting to setting. We describe the problem in these terms: if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If someone has a substance abuse problem that has not come up on the radar, does that mean he or she does not have a problem?
More people than ever before seeing themselves as addicted to, or recovering from, addiction, whether it be alcohol or drugs, prescription meds, sex, gambling, porn, or the internet. But despite the unprecedented attention, our understanding of addiction is trapped in unfounded 20th-century ideas, addiction as a crime or as a brain disease, and in equally outdated treatment. Challenging both the idea of the addict’s “broken brain” and the notion of a simple “addictive personality,” Unbroken Brain offers a radical and groundbreaking new perspective, arguing that addictions are learning disorders and shows how seeing the condition this way can untangle our current debates over treatment, prevention, and policy. Like autistic traits, addictive behaviors fall on a spectrum — and they can be a normal response to an extreme situation. By illustrating what addiction is, and is not, the book illustrates how timing, history, family, peers, culture, and chemicals come together to create both illness and recovery- and why there is no “addictive personality” or single treatment that works for all.
