How Addiction Affects the Brain

Earlier this year, we lost one of my favorite actors, Philip Seymour Hoffman, to a drug overdose. Sadly, he is not the first person who has lost their life due to addiction, nor will he be the last. What people don’t understand about his death, and the countless others who’ve died from their own addictions, is how a person who’s been clean for 24 years suddenly relapse. In a recent interview, Russell Brand voiced addiction perfectly when he said, “[Philip Seymour Hoffman’s] death doesn’t make sense unless you accept addiction is an illness.”

The Brain and Addiction

For years, scientists and …read more