Memoirs of an Addicted Brain
A Neuroscientist Examines his Former Life on Drugs
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Memoirs of an Addicted Brain
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Narrated by:
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Jeff Semple
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By:
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Marc Lewis PhD
About this listen
Marc Lewis's relationship with drugs began in a New England boarding school where, as a bullied and homesick fifteen-year-old, he made brief escapes from reality by way of cough medicine, alcohol, and marijuana. In Berkeley, California, in its hippie heyday, he found methamphetamine and LSD and heroin. He sniffed nitrous oxide in Malaysia and frequented Calcutta's opium dens. Ultimately, though, his journey took him where it takes most addicts: into a life of addiction, desperation, deception, and crime.
But unlike most addicts, Lewis recovered and became a developmental psychologist and researcher in neuroscience. In Memoirs of an Addicted Brain, he applies his professional expertise to a study of his former self, using the story of his own journey through addiction to tell the universal story of addictions of every kind. He explains the neurological effects of a variety of powerful drugs, and shows how they speak to the brain—itself designed to seek rewards and soothe pain-in its own language. And he illuminates how craving overtakes the nervous system, sculpting a synaptic network dedicated to one goal—more—at the expense of everything else.
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I never was an addict but I have tried most of the drugs.
So for me this was quite an experience and opportunity to better understand why did some stuff.
There's also a lot to learn how brain works without drugs.
which hormone is doing what, when and how.
I think it's really good for parents specially for those whom didn't try substance in case that their kids start using them.
Not all drug users are drug abuseers, some of them are just curious.
Warning to drug users. This book maybe to hard to read.
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Insightful for Understanding Addiction
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