The Science of Addiction - A Different Lens

Why do people succumb to drug, alcohol, gambling and food addictions? Today, the science behind addiction is playing a bigger role in understanding why people become addicted and how to curb these dangerous behaviours.
While society often continues to stigmatise addiction, we now know that it is a neurological condition. This has resulted in cutting edge treatments, better education, and significant research that is disrupting the exploitation of addicts by the tobacco, gambling and fast food giants.
lens.monash.ed...
www.monash.edu...
Produced by Monash University
Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Dr Charles Livingstone
Associate Prof. Marie Yap
Prof. Wendy Brown
Prof. Murat Yucel
Prof. Dan Lubman
Associate Prof. Antonio Verdejo Garcia
Jenny Valentish
Author
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Dr Chris Langmead
Monash Business School
Associate Prof. Dennis Petrie
SensiLab
Music by DG Music
Animation by Jumbla
Produced by Monash University In partnership with Y&R ANZ

[@Ann-md8pu]

She wishes she had told her 13-year-old self to get professional help after she was addicted. But it's too bad she didn't tell her 13-year-old self not to take her first drink of alcohol. Too bad she didn't say, "I'm only 13. I'm not going to drink alcohol. It is illegal for children to consume alcohol because it is bad for us. It might even end up causing an addiction." All the substances that people become addicted to are voluntarily (and often illegally) self-administered: narcotics, nicotine, gambling, alcohol ... Clearly the best way to avoid an addiction to heroin, for example, is to decline to take heroin -- and the same is true for any other addictive substance. The exception is an "addiction" to food, which has a completely different basis for "addiction" (excessive weight gain.) "The outcomes of therapy are better than those for heart disease ..." Oh really? Well, CHF is 100% fatal, so that isn't saying much. What does that claim even mean -- that people don't die from gambling as often as they die from having a heart attack? I didn't know that the neurological basis for addiction was so mysterious. Maybe they should ask researchers in opioid addictions. This article sounds like self-serving promotions for their "therapy.

[@daniellegilmore4120]

This is the most ignorant comment I've ever read.