Robbin Brown

I recently read an article and viewed a TED talk called Everything You Know about Addiction is Wrong” by Johann Harri, in which he states, “The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection.” I found this statement so profound and interesting. There are numerous studies into why addiction happens; some say it comes from depression, others say a traumatic event is the cause and some say addiction is a disease and those who find themselves caught in the never ending cycle cannot help themselves. In fact, when we find someone who his caught up in addiction often the treatment involves isolation and detox, very contradictory to Mr. Harri’s statement. Evidence has shown how essential healthy relationships and love are for brain development. A General Theory of Love, by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini and Richard Lannon, psychiatry professors at the University of California, San Francisco examines this idea more. Their findings indicated the limbic systems of our brain are deeply affected by those closest to us. Our brain development (the way we use our pre-frontal cortex in decision making) is impacted deeply by the way connections are made from relationships at a very young age and continue […]