Challenging both the idea of the addict's “broken brain” and the notion of a simple “addictive personality,” Unbroken Brain offers a radical and groundbreaking new perspective, arguing that addictions are learning disorders and shows how seeing the condition this way can untangle our current debates over treatment, prevention and policy. Like autistic traits, addictive behaviors fall on a spectrum—and they can be a normal response to an extreme situation. By illustrating what addiction is, and is not, the book illustrates how timing, history, family, peers, culture and chemicals come together to create both illness and recovery—and why there is no “addictive personality” or single treatment that works for all.

Combining Maia’s personal story with a distillation of more than twenty-five years of science and research, Unbroken Brain provides a paradigm-shifting approach to thinking about addiction.