Unbroken Brain
More people than ever before see 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of addiction is trapped in unfounded 20th century ideas, addiction as a crime or as brain disease, and in equally outdated treatment.Challenging both the idea of the addict s broken brain and the notion of a simple addictive personality, The New York Times Bestseller, Unbroken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.Combining Maia Szalavitz s personal story with a distillation of than 25 years of science and research, Unbroken Brain provides a paradigm shifting approach to thinking about addiction.Her writings on radical addiction therapies have been featured in The Washington Post, Vice Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, in addition to multiple other publications She has been interviewed about her book on many radio shows including Fresh Air with Terry Gross and The Brian Lehrer show. Read Unbroken Brain – kino-fada.fr addiction is not a sin or a choice But it s not a chronic, progressive brain disease like Alzheimer s either Instead, addiction is developmental disorder a problem involving timing and learning,similar to autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD , and dyslexia than it is to mumps or cancer. The phone rang during a station identification break Caller ID was enough I answered, saying, I know I m listening My mind is blown It was early July and journalist advocateaddiction is not a sin or a choice But it s not a chronic, progressive brain disease like Alzheimer s either Instead, addiction is developmental disorder a problem involving timing and learning,similar to autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD , and dyslexia than it is to mumps or cancer. The phone rang during a station identification break Caller ID was enough I answered, saying, I know I m listening My mind is blown It was early July and journalist advocate Maia Szalavitz was being interviewed by Terry Gross on WHYY s Fresh Air The next day I went to my local bookstore to order Unbroken Brain It was backordered Weeks When it finally did arrive last week, I carved out time each afternoon to read, writing notes in my journal, in the book, sharing the parts that made me gasp or tear up with my partner, who has struggled with addiction since pre adolescence The theories Szalavitz s posits in Unbroken Brain and to those reviewers...As a recovery advocate and the father of someone in long term recovery, I ve readbooks about addiction than I can count When my son first started struggling with drugs, I made a vow to educate myself as much as I possibly could Knowledge is power, and I wanted to know everything about addiction I still do So I read about it A lot And I can honestly say that Maia Szalavitz s Unbroken Brain A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction is one of the best books I ve ever read on t As a recovery advocate and the father of someone in long term recovery, I ve readbooks about ad...DNF I am an attorney working in juvenile court with parents whose children have been removed by the state As you can imagine, drugs are involved in the majority but not all of the cases I handle I spend a lot of time with addicts I also spend a lot of time taking continuing legal education sessions with experts in drug abuse, child abuse, psychology, and other areas of study that are of interest to someone who works in fields like mine I work closely with rehab counselors, rehab centers, DNF I am an attorney working in juvenile court with parents whose children have been removed by the state As you can imagine, drugs are involved in the majority but not all of the cases I handle I spend a lot of time with addicts I also spend a lot of time taking continuing legal education sessions with experts in drug abuse, child abuse, psychology, and other areas of study that are of interest to someone who works in fields like mine I work closely with rehab counselors, rehab centers, therapists, psychiatrists, and the like There are a few experts who have mentioned this theory of addiction in passing, though very few of the ones I ve come across give it much weight It may make sense in the context of the author s particular circumstances I understand that the author is a recovering addict, and that her story is reflected in this book howeve...I took a long break from this book after getting to chapter 9 and her repeated mentions to her first experience with cocaine being with Jerry Garcia I was extremely maybe to the extent of going a bit overboard vexed by what I perceived as name dropping and bragging in conjunction with drug use At the time, I probably needed a target for some anger, and this was an easy one I am glad I went back to reading this It has insights into addiction that I found personally helpful I can truthfully I took a long break from this book after getting to chapter 9 and her repeated mentions to her first experience with cocaine being with Jerry Garcia I was extremely maybe to the extent of going a bit overboard vexed by what I perceived as name dropping and bragging in conju...Because I m a substance abuse counselor, people have often asked me to recommend a book about addiction For thirty years, the only one I ever urged people to read has been the Big Book of AA, written eighty years ago, when we knew next to nothing about addiction I ll get into the reason why I recommended it in a minute I m happy to say that now there s a better book for anyone interested in learning about addiction, drawing on the latest findings, written by an award winning journalist and re Because I m a substance abuse counselor, people have often asked me to recommend a book about addiction For thirty years, the only one I ever urged people to read has been the Big Book of AA, written eighty years ago, when we knew next to nothing about addiction I ll get into the reason why I recommended it in a minute I m happy to say that now there s a better book for anyone interested in learning about addiction, drawing on the latest findings, written by an award winning journalist and recovering addict, Maia Szalavitz Her book is Unbroken Brain.The central premise to Unbroken Brain, is that we re in the middle of an epidemic of addiction and we are stuck in treating it ineffectively when ther...I learned a thing or two from this book, but I d hesitate to recommend it I do believe it adds value to our public discourse about addiction Ms Szalavitz describes her own addiction and recovery with clarity and insight She paints a mostly accurate picture of the blind spots and pitfalls of our punitive drug policies She offers a constructive critique of our society s overreliance on 12 step programs She sheds light on neurological insights that can help us better understand, prevent, and a I learned a thing or two from this book, but I d hesitate to recommend it I do believe it adds value to our public discourse about addiction Ms Szalavitz describes her own addiction and recovery with clarity and insight She paints a mostly accurate picture of the blind spots and pitfalls of our punitive drug policies She offers a constructive critique of our society s overreliance on 12 step programs She sheds light on neurological insights that can help us better understand, prevent, and address addiction That said, this book gives me pause for a few reasons The author s central thesis is that addiction is a learning disorder, and that we should start treating it as such I agree that addiction impacts learning processes, and that addictive behaviors are learned, but I don t agree that addiction is therefore equivalent to a learning disorder The ...My review for The Associated Press Nancy Reagan s death last month caused some to take stock of her mantra Just Say No and why it failed to prevent addiction or dissuade many young people in the 1980s from experimenting with dangerous drugs.In Unbroken Brain, science writer Maia Szalavitz, a high school student in the Reagan years, describes her own drug odyssey LSD, cocaine, heroin and her first steps toward successful recovery at age 23 in 1988 Since then, understanding addiction and My review for The Associated Press Nancy Reagan s death last month caused some to take stock of her mantra Just Say No and why it failed to prevent addiction or dissuade many young people in the 1980s from experimenting with dangerous drugs.In Unbroken Brain, science writer Maia Szalavitz, a high school student in the Reagan years, describes her own drug odyssey LSD, cocaine, heroin and her first steps toward successful recovery at age 23 in 1988 Since then, understanding addiction and treatment has been her life s work She s now regarded as a leading authority, with articles in Time, The New York Times, ...I m stuck on my rating for this book I wanted to give it a higher rating, and I like a lot of the theories and explanations here.However, there are a lot of opposing views in the material itself it s a learning disorder Well Except for when it changes the brain Which, if it does that, means it can t solely be a learning disorder, as one example.I also think the sections on marijuana and criminal justice were clearly very one sided, and didn t highlight any of the potential concerns I m stuck on my rating for this book I wanted to give it a higher rating, and I like a lot of the theories and explanations here.However, there are a lot of opposing views in the material itself it s a learning disorder Well Except for when it changes the brain Which, if it does that, means it can t solely be a learning disorder, as one example.I also think the sections on marijuana and criminal justice were clearly very one sided, and didn t highlight any of the potential concerns It s clear the author didn t seem to see any downsides to marijuana use A lot of criminal justice is being very progressive using MRT treatment, motivational enhancement training, CBT, and client directed case planning tools to aid in the change process But you wouldn t know any of that It s very, it shouldn t be criminalized at all , and anything short of that is doing irreparable harm I thought it a great idea, but some of the constant reductive ideas about addiction and addi...While I enjoyed her personal anecdotes, the lack of citations supporting her assertions leads me to consider this a memoir and not a revolutionary new way of understanding addiction.I think this is a brilliant book, highly intelligent and well presented, too I think everyone should really pick it up and give it a read because we all know someone who struggles with addiction It gave me an entirely new perspective on the issue Disclaimer I w...
- 15 February 2017 Maia Szalavitz
- Hardcover
- 352 pages
- 1250055822
- Maia Szalavitz
- Unbroken Brain