Breaking Addiction

March 7, 2011
Dodes, an eminent researcher of addiction at Harvard Medical School and author of the groundbreaking The Heart of Addiction, has hit another home run by focusing on getting to the root of addictive behavior. Years of personal research has shown Dodes that feelings of helplessness almost always precede an addictive act. This in turn leads to a sense of rage at feeling powerless. Defense mechanisms vary, but the methods discussed through Dodes's case studies offer insight into how addicts learn to cope emotionally with stress, culminating in addictive behavior. But ending addiction is still highly complicated; always present is what the author calls the "key moment" that leads to the behavior. The conversations and situations outlined here, drawn from Dodes's own experience, realistically illuminate what can lead to addition and the behavior manifestations often associated. Addicts will relate to Dodes's seven step solution, provided they can move beyond the "addiction as disease" or genetic hand-me-down thinking prevalent in the recovery discourse for much of the last century. Dodes's common-sense methodology, based on introspection and proactive alternatives to the compulsion is nothing short of revolutionary.