TSC Talks! Addiction Is Not A Disease, with Marc D. Lewis, Ph.D., Neuroscientist, Professor Emeritus, Author

“If we are to understand anything so complex and troubling as addiction, we need to gaze directly at the point where experience and biology meet. Because that’s the bottleneck, the linchpin, where human affairs are cast and crystallized. That’s where the brain shapes our lives and our lives shape the brain” Marc D. Lewis, Ph.D.

I had the honor and pleasure of interviewing Marc. D. Lewis on TSC Talks to discuss his life and work with the focus of the conversation on how he developed his understanding of addiction, and how he debunked the more traditional theory that addiction is indeed a disease. Marc is a neuroscientist, recently retired full professor of developmental psychology, at the University of Toronto from 1989 to 2010, and at Radboud University in the Netherlands from 2010 to 2016. He is the author or co-author of over 50 journal publications in psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience, editor of an academic book on developmental psychology, and co-author of a book for parents. More recently he has written two books on the science and experience of addiction.

I heard Marc on a podcast several years ago after reading his blog, https://memoirsofanaddictedbrain.com. I was a few years into recovery from substance abuse addiction and struggling with many of the traditional modes of treatment. As a parent of children with some extra challenges case managing their TSC related care post-divorce, I was buoyed when I heard Marc discussing his 2nd book, The Biology of Desire, Why Addiction is Not a Disease (2015)which claims “the scientific facts don’t support the disease model of addiction. Rather, addiction, like romantic love and other emotionally loaded habits, develops through deep learning and limited alternatives. Combining scientific views with intimate biographies of addicts who recovered, the book also shows how addiction can be overcome, through self-directed change in one’s goals and perspectives.”

Having felt more validated in my own personal experience knowing that there were multiple factors personally at play that led to my own demise, I went and started reading more of his blog and research. Viewing myself as victim of a disease while at the same time having to maintain a somewhat subservient stance to wrangle the services necessary to help our family recover from years of ongoing traumas, was almost too much to bear. I simply could not accept the idea that I had a disease and as I chose to navigate away from that model of understanding, including delving into cannabinoid medicine, I was finally able to intimately integrate past present and future in a way that I could truly climb out of many self-limiting beliefs reinforced by this notion. Clinging to the disease model of addiction was limiting and I have to say, Marc’s work has made a tangible impact on my own and so many others who have had less than typical experiences for which the confines of traditional recovery methods led to deeper despair and frustration. I’m including a bit more information from Marc’s bio along with some quotes that highlight might be helpful and lead you to download and/or at least listen to this fabulous chat.

Beginning during his undergraduate years in Berkeley, California, Marc experimented with a large variety of drugs, eventually becoming addicted to opiates. He moved to Toronto in 1976 and began to study psychology at the University of Toronto, but at the same time encountered serious personal and legal troubles resulting from his addiction. After quitting drugs at age 30, he continued his graduate education in developmental psychology. He received a Ph.D. and license to practice psychology in 1989, and he was appointed to the position of assistant professor the same year.

Around 2006, Marc’s research led him back to addiction, this time as a neuroscientist studying the brain changes that accompany addiction and recovery. His 2011 book, Memoirs of an Addicted Brain, blends his life story with a user-friendly account of how drugs (from LSD and alcohol to speed and heroin) affect the brain and how alterations in brain function help explain addiction.
His more recent book is The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a Disease (2015), and it has stirred controversy among people with addictions, their families, addiction researchers, and treatment providers.”

“The fact is that we in the West embrace the logic of pigeonholing problems, giving them unique names and finding technical solutions-the more targeted the better-for alleviating them. That is, to a T, the logic of Western medicine.”

We also discussed the impact of social distancing and quarantine measures on those that might be struggling with addiction during this global pandemic. Please note Marc’s links to social media as well as multiple articles, videos that might be helpful and illuminating for anyone currently struggling.

“What often goes together with addiction is a kind of narrowing of the social world, you get your needs for soothing and satisfaction or pleasure from a substance. You do not need to connect as much. So, the social world kind of shrinks around you. And before long, you kind of lose the opportunity, you lose the availability of other people, you lose friends, you lose family, you kind of, you know, you kind of bury yourself in a little hole in the ground, where you have your substance and you have maybe a couple of other people around you that also are involved in substances That's it. The Coronavirus also is pushing us to burrow into a shrinking environment. We are sitting there at home by ourselves. And people are just losing even more the opportunity to connect outside of themselves, to extend their, their social web and to extend their possible the availability of getting your needs met by other people and other activities. So that in itself, I think is just the built-in hardship of this lockdown phase that we're in.”

If you or a loved one or anyone in your circles is feeling at risk and struggling with mental health issues, please don’t hesitate to call National Suicide Prevention Lifeline https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ 1-800-273-8255.

Marc’s links are as follows:

Website: https://memoirsofanaddictedbrain.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQvHfB1Kg4zStk5YwMYWH9Q Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_David_Lewis ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marc_Lewis3 The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/aug/30/marc-lewis-the-neuroscientist-who-believes-addiction-is-not-a-disease
Videos that are awesome! https://youtu.be/aOSD9rTVuWc Addiction and Trust: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3p_LuTM73k With Dalai Lama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZgx-6GOBAs
Order His Books!:
https://www.memoirsofanaddictedbrain.com/buy-biology-of-desire/
https://www.memoirsofanaddictedbrain.com/buy-it/

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