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The biology of desire : why addiction is not a disease / Marc Lewis.

by Lewis, Marc D.

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Doubleday Canada, 2015.

Substance abuse -- Etiology.

Compulsive behavior -- Etiology.

Addicts -- Psychology.

9780385682282 (hc.)

038568228X (hc.)

238 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Through the stories of five people who journeyed into and out of addiction, a neuroscientist explains why the "disease model" of addiction is wrong. The psychiatric establishment and rehab industry in the Western world have branded addiction a brain disease, based on evidence that brains change with drug use. But cognitive neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis makes a convincing case that addiction is not a disease, and shows why the disease model has become an obstacle to healing. Lewis reveals addiction as an unintended consequence of the brain doing what it’s supposed to do -- seek pleasure and relief -- in a world that's not cooperating. Brains are designed to restructure themselves with normal learning and development, but this process is accelerated in addiction when highly attractive rewards are pursued repeatedly. Lewis shows how treatment can be retooled to achieve lasting recovery, given the realities of brain plasticity. For anyone who has wrestled with addiction either personally or professionally. Marc Lewis (MemoirsofanAddictedBrain.com) is a neuroscientist now working at Radboud University in the Netherlands. He taught for more than twenty years at the University of Toronto"--Provided by publisher.

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