Healing The Addicted Brain Summary

Words: 1474
Pages: 6

Shaquila Smith
Professor Warner
PSY 200
May 12, 2017

Urschel, Harold. Healing the Addicted Brain: Sourcebook Inc. (2009)
What does the author believe causes the target behavior? In this book, “Healing the Addicted Brain,” Dr. Urschel feels that addiction is a brain disease. He views it as a chronic illness that damages the important components of the brain such as the cerebral cortex and the limbic system. He sees addiction as something that can not be corrected over night but over a very long period of time. He also believes that individuals can not fully recover or be cured. Addiction can only be controlled. Dr. Urschel states that addiction can be caused by several factors. A few of those factors are genetics, their emotional state, their
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Urschel does not come out and say how one admits or determines they are a addict. Instead he uses different types of scenarios to point out how people feel or sees themselves during certain situations. Examples of this is if you feel that you are going to fail or you want to avoid pain, you then result to drinking or abusing drugs. He feels that people tend to deal with what is called dual thinking. Dual thinking is where people debate between pro- addiction vs pro-recovery. Several people tend refuse to believe that they have a actual problem. They do not see anything wrong with having a couple of drinks or taking a few pills to make them feel better. By doing this they trick their minds into thinking that it is normal to result to abusing alcohol or drugs to escape …show more content…
What were the findings? Yes, the twelve step program and rehab does work for a period of time. The author feels that these work best with this book and other methods along the way. He also informs you that if you are still prone to relapse even after completing the recommendations.
Is there any information from another source that would support the authors claims? I was not able to find any other sources to support Dr. Urschel’s claims. According to the author this book is based off of the Recovery Science Program that has helped patients beat addiction. When I attempted to research this program I was not sure is this program was accurate or creditable. This program is supposedly the breakthrough to treating addiction as a biological disease.
Do you believe the authors treatment strategies and recommendations might help you or someone that has this target behavior? Why or why