ABSTRACT
Despite the many advances in addiction medicine and the growing consensus that substance addiction is a complex brain disease and chronic medical illness that seriously undermines the ability to judge the consequences of one’s actions, impairs insight and rational decision-making, and disrupts learning/memory and adaptive self-control (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Cami & Farre, 2003; Crean, Crane, & Mason, 2011; National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), 2012; Schoenbaum, Roesch, & Stainaker, 2006; Volkow, Baler, & Goldstein, 2011; Volkow & Li, 2004), substance addiction continues to be vilified in many circles as a selfish manifestation of flawed moral character, poor willpower, and bad choices (NIDA, 2012; Volkow & Li, 2004). In effect, the daily struggles of people with substance addictions often go unnoticed, and many “healthy” individuals lack an understanding of or empathy for their plights, perhaps because the thought of continuing to engage in such a self-destructive behavior is baffling and unfathomable to those who have never known addiction.
