Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction

Grisel, a behavioral neuroscientist and Bucknell psychology professor, examines the complexities of addiction in this personal account of a decade of substance abuse from age 13 until 23, when “I’d finally reached the dead end where I felt I was incapable of living either with or without mind-altering substances.” Weaving anecdotes of her ordeal—some funny, others embarrassing—with basic brain science, she explains how drugs work, why some are more effective than others, and how addicts differ from nonaddicts. Lecturing on the dangers of drug use, she repeats over and over, “there can never be enough drug” because of the brain’s ability to adapt. After six months in a treatment program—which she describes too briefly—she decides to become a neuroscientist and endures seven years of study while fighting off “cravings” for various drugs, until she can say, “My life had changed 180 degrees. Not only did I have a shiny new Ph.D., but I was able to look people in the eye.” Critical of social customs where drinks are offered as congratulations, she bemoans sobriety as “lonely.” Concluding that addiction is complicated, she offers some insight but unfortunately, if perhaps necessarily, leaves readers of her thoughtful book with no solutions to the many problems associated with addiction. (Feb.)