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| Loving the add-ons on the Lancaster Public Library exterior...borrowed Judith Grisel's Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction - May 2024 |
Happy New Month Beautiful People,
Loving that Fall is here with us (you all know it is my besttime of the year)…and loving the back to back mental health related events and
activities - we just stepped out of National Recovery Month and World Suicide
Prevention month aka September, and are currently in World Mental Health Month
- whose theme is prioritizing workplace mental health. I have written on this a
couple of times, with the most recent posts highlighting journalists and theirmental health, and Kenya’s female boxer.
Before we get deep into world mental health month related events and activities, I wanted to share
something recovery related.
Earlier in the Summer, when I was fresh off my
semester of studying all things addiction and psychopathy, and doing an
academic poster on US Laws and Pregnant women with substance use disorder, I
got a book - Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction by
Judith Grisel, PhD - on addiction from the public library. I finished book,
started drafting a blog post but never got round to finishing it because a girl
decided to start building a business venture.
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| Long live public libraries - September 2024 |
I re-borrowed the book last week, got it on Monday and finally got round to
finishing my blog post. The intro I did in May is in italics, followed by the
summary I worked on this morning.
A couple of weeks ago, I was at the library for a Silent
Book Club and was hoping to catch a screening that ended up being cancelled.
After the book club, I decided to browse their psychology and neuroscience
session and check the library's network catalogue for addiction related book. I
saw Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction by
Judith Grisel, PhD on the list and placed a request for it.
Got notified two days later that it was ready for pick
up.
My plan was to read a chapter a day for the 14 days I had
it and do a summary paragraph/reflection of sorts (clearly practicing for when
I am a professor and asking my students to read, summarize and come to class
ready to discuss their take-aways). On the real though, this was my way of
making my reading and literature review on addiction and women more intentional,
and I saw it as a way of narrowing down topics/focus areas for my Clinical
Psychology program thesis.
(side note: not sure I want my research to be on this topic
anymore…but it is too early to say).
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| Loved this drawing...took pic on my way from the library - September, 2024 |
my take-aways
The book is written by Judith Grisel, PhD who is a
professor, behavioral neuroscientist and has lived experience with addiction (she
had her first drink at 13). She uses her journey to not only explain how
addiction works in a practical sense, but also backs it all with science.
The title,
Never Enough, summarizes her quest, and that of many others, to quench
something in her, but the substances she used were NEVER ENOUGH, leading her to
try a new substance, in different quantities, but it was NEVER ENOUGH!!! She
talks about strained family relationships, the things she did and conditions
she lived under just to maintain her lifestyle. The book is not all gloom as
she also talks about her recovery journey which is still ongoing tens of years
later, and the quest to find ‘a cure for addiction’ that led her back to
school, all the way to a doctoral program, and her work as a behavioral scientist.
The first chapter is an introduction to her, and her work.
The second chapter take a deep dive into how the brain works – punishment and
reinforcement – and why that is important in understanding addiction. The next
seven chapters are dedicated to the different classifications of substances –
each classification has its own chapter. She weaves social, historical, empirical and
personal narratives in each chapter as well as how the various substances
affect the brain/body. The second last chapter is dedicated to the author’s
introspection. She highlights the things that made her vulnerable to addiction –
biological disposition, exposure to substances, catalyzing environment and
early start. Finally, the last chapter explores how society can/should deal
with addiction. The author points out that the solution goes beyond just looking
at the brain.
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| Definitely recommend this book - Lancaster Public Library 'hold section', September 2024 |
She mentions that it is the drive to ‘escape from reality’
not the drugs/substance that makes one an addict (p 217), and that as a
society, ‘we are suffering from depth deprivation, which is found most
naturally in honest connections’ (p 220) – and that the best way forward is to
reach for others. Additionally, she highlights that recovery is a process of
expansion, not restriction (p 210).
my recommendation
When I become a professor, this book will be among the ‘understanding
addiction’ books that I will recommend. It is not only engaging, but it does a
very good job at outlining and illustrating the various types of substances,
the occasions they are commonly used and their impact to the brain/body, and their
alternative advantages ( if used well and in controlled settings). Most of all
it gives a simple and practical prevention strategy – compassion.
Until the next post,
Sending love and light,
Sitawa
Sitawa
