The Heart of Addiction: A New Approach to Understanding and Managing Alcoholism and Other Addictive Behaviors (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780060958039)

Nobody has had an answer for why people with addictions continue to repeat them -- until now.

For more than twenty years, distinguished psychiatrist Dr. Lance Dodes has been successfully helping people master their addictions -- alcoholism, compulsive gambling, smoking, sexual addiction, and more with a radical approach. Dr. Dodes describes how all addictions have, at their heart, unrecognized emotional factors that explain:

• Why we feel the impulse
• Why we feel it when we do
• What alternatives (really) work in that critical moment

In this refreshing book filled with compelling case studies, Dr. Dodes debunks several such widely accepted myths as:

• Addictions are fundamentally a physical problem.
• People with addictions are different from other people.
• You have to hit bottom before you can get well.
• You are wasting your time if you ask "why" you have an addiction.