Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction

by Maia Szalavitz

In all of these conditions, the boundaries between normal and problem behavior are fuzzy.

Certainly great area but err on the side of caution

In both autism and addictions, for example, repetitive coping behaviors are frequently misinterpreted as the source of the problem, rather than being seen as attempts at solutions.

I kinda feel that way; people say it’s a type of mania but I feel like I’m deliberately attempting to solve something; mania or depression might be an underlying or strongly recognized disposition of people who have this observed repetitive behavior

Similarly, addictive behavior is often a search for safety rather than an attempt to rebel or a selfish turn inward

We’ll see throughout this book how misinterpreting understandable attempts at self-protection as hedonistic, selfish, or “crazy” has needlessly stigmatized people with developmental disorders including addiction—and, as a result, has increased associated disability rather than helping.

Nice intellectual look at it; also might be closer to true than other ideas

and it often remits with or without treatment among people in their mid-20s, just as the brain becomes fully adult.

In fact, 90% of all substance addictions start in adolescence, and most illegal drug addictions end by age 30.

Surprisingly, only 10–20% of those who try even the most stigmatized drugs like heroin, crack, and methamphetamine become addicted.

And that group, which tends to have a significant history of childhood trauma and/or preexisting mental illness, will usually find some way of compulsively self-medicating, no matter how much we crack down on one substance or another.

Mental illness as a factor

Although you might get people to use more or less harmful substances while in the grips of their compulsions, you aren’t addressing the real problem.

A spiritual void?

Second, given that addiction is a learning disorder, it isn’t necessarily a lifelong problem that demands chronic treatment and the acceptance of a stigmatized identity: studies find that the majority of cocaine, alcohol, prescription drug, and cannabis addictions end before people are in their mid-30s and most do so without treatment.

Similarly, between one third and one half of children diagnosed with ADHD ...

for it as adults, and treatment doesn’t seem to affect whether they outgrow the disorder or not, although it certainly c...

I have come to believe that learning is the key to better treatment, prevention, and policy.

However, trying to understand addiction without recognizing the role of learning is like trying

to analyze songs and symphonies without knowing music theory: you can intuitively identify discord and beauty, but you miss the deep structure that shapes and predicts harmony.

In fact, however, research shows that, overall, addiction is the psychiatric disorder with the highest odds of recovery, not the worst prognosis—as many have been led to believe.

It is learned and has a history rooted in their individual,

social, and cultural development.

people actually have increased odds of recovery as they age, not reduced chances.

Label addiction as merely biological, psychological, social, or cultural and it cannot be understood. Incorporate the importance of learning, context, and development, however, and it all becomes much more explicable and tractable.

Learning helps explain why cultural trends and genetics can both have big influences and why addictive behavior is so varied.

When starving, when in love, and when parenting, being able to persist despite negative consequences—the essence of addictive behavior—is not a bug, but a feature, as programmers say.

Love and addiction are alterations of the same brain circuits, which is why caring and connection are essential to recovery, too.

That is, addiction is best understood as compulsive use of a substance or compulsive engagement in a behavior despite ongoing negative consequences.

Addiction dsm definition

Addiction, then, is a coping style that becomes maladaptive when the behavior persists despite ongoing negative consequences. This persistence occurs because “overlearning” or reduced brain plasticity makes the behavior extremely resistant to change. Plasticity is the brain’s ability to learn or change with experience. Lowered plasticity means this ability is compromised, and when a pattern of activity is locked in, it is “overlearned.”

The strong drives that these systems create can be useful when they spur persistence in love, work, and parenting. However, their intense resistance to change becomes a “bug” in our programming when drug taking or other unhealthy activities continue in the face of ongoing harm.

addiction involves interference with the brain processes that themselves guide decision making and motivation by determining the emotional weight of various options.

This can occur either because drugs themselves change this chemistry and circuitry or because these brain systems are inherently vulnerable to being altered by certain patterns of experience—or as a result of some combination of both processes.

It’s about stopping your passage to the future, it’s a symptom of fear of death, and the love of predictable experience.

Probably any reminiscing on failures

Many, if not most, of the individual differences that are seen in neural tissue as we develop are actually alterations made to represent what we have learned—in other words, our memories.

Not a fan of reducing learned behavior to memories

If we really want to make sense of addiction, then, our memories, their social context, their patterns, and the way we have learned them are of

profound importance. They make each brain—and each addiction—unique.

Interesting! Reframing past experiences through journaling or other ways like referencing old photo albums to get better picture of past?

Fundamentally, learning or developmental disorders—the terms are used interchangeably—have four important features. First, they start early in life, caused by variations in brain wiring driven by innate genetic programming.

Four features of learning disability

Since most brain development depends on experience, environmental influences in childhood ranging from parents and peers to chemical exposures can determine whether wiring differences become disorders, disabilities, advantages, or some mix of all three.

Second, developmental disorders are not necessarily associated with global deficits. While Down syndrome is linked with an overall reduction in IQ, autism, dyslexia, ADHD, dyscalculia (a specific difficulty with mathematical learning), addictions, and many mental illnesses are not.

Second point: thes brain could still function somewhat normally

Third, timing matters in learning disorders.

Prone to addiction in certain phases of life

Lastly, because development is sequential, well-timed intervention can change its course.

Sequentiall or known phasess occur nlot necessadrily linearly

And all in all, the importance of sequencing in all developmental disorders cannot be overstated.

it is almost impossible to understand the present state of a system without knowing its particular history. The exact order of events matters.

History importance in addiction

any given story. * * * ON MY FOURTH birthday, I just couldn’t wait to go to the party room of the building where my family lived in Washington Heights. Before the party started, I vibrated with anticipation. I probably wore my favorite blue dress, with red-and-white appliqued flowers running in a stripe down each side. My mom had invited the other preschoolers in the building, as well as my New Lincoln classmates, for a total of about 15 kids. As the guests arrived, I circled the table. We had pointy party hats, but I wouldn’t wear one because I didn’t like the feeling of the rubber string cutting into my neck. But I was eager for dessert and presents, kicking my legs to disperse nervous energy as I sat. Finally, my mom brought the cake in and the singing started. She placed the large conical confection on the table. What had been a noisy, chaotic room rapidly went surprisingly still and quiet: my cake

Addiction disproportionately kicks people who are already down.

Yup

I was extraordinarily, exceptionally, almost extravagantly lucky. As a result, I felt and continue to feel obligated to do all I can to make sure that others are able to be treated with similar mercy.

Kinda feel this way in certain ways; other ways not szo much

Unlike current policies, harm reduction recognizes the crucial role of learning in addiction and the failure of punishment to solve drug problems.