num_pages: 352
description: A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 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of addiction is trapped in unfounded 20th century ideas addiction as a crime or as brain disease and in equally outdated treatment.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 more 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.
language: English
title: Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction
publisher: St. Martin's Press