By age 35, half of all people who qualified for active alcoholism or addiction diagnoses during their teens and 20s no longer do, according to a study of over 42,000 Americans in a sample designed to represent the adult population. However, that’s not what the epidemiology of the disorder suggests. The early to mid-20s is also the period when the prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain responsible for good judgement and self-restraint – finally reaches maturity.Īccording to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, addiction is “a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry”. I was facing serious drug charges and I weighed 85 pounds, after months of injecting, often dozens of times a day.īut although I got treatment, I quit at around the age when, according to large epidemiological studies, most people who have diagnosable addiction problems do so – without treatment. When I stopped shooting coke and heroin, I was 23. So argues Maia Szalavitz in this article originally published by
Yet the ‘ageing out’ experience of the majority is ignored by treatment providers and journalists. The idea that addiction is typically a chronic, progressive disease that requires treatment is false, the evidence shows. Briefing to the Incoming Parliament 2020.
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