Covers substance abuse as well as models of addiction applied to eating disorders, gambling and sexual promiscuity.
Most people believe alcohol and illegal drugs cause addiction.
They believe some people are biologically predisposed to addictive behavior. They also believe addiction is a treatable disease. If you challenge those ideas, you are likely to be labeled ignorant at best and a heretic at worst. In this course you will comprehend the fiction about addiction masquerading as fact, and the fact about addiction most people regard as fiction. In the first part of the course we review the substantial empirical evidence showing people use drugs to change their consciousness for existential and psychological reasons, not necessarily chemical or biological ones.