Why addiction is different

• Addiction to Chemical Substances by Steve Colameco, MD, 11/16/97
  • Scripts for Addiction by Don Nathanson, 12/1/97
    • (No title) by (No author), 1/11/98
      
      

Of course you're correct to say that all of life and all of therapy involve affective learning---and of course all learning must involve affect at some level. Certainly I did not mean to minimize the difficulties of people with other clinical conditions! All struggles are personal battles and as such, important and difficult.

Yet one of the subtle problems we therapists see with addicted patients is that whatever substance or behavior had been chosen as a preferred means of modulating or avoiding negative affect, the only solution for many many of life's problems found by the addicted individual has been to use the addictive script. The earlier one started to use the false system of solace, the more serious the implications of that person's false self.

I wish you every success in your personal struggle.

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