The Heart of Addiction - by Lance M Dodes (Paperback)

About the Book

With compassion and deep understanding based on more than 25 years of clinical practice, Dr. Dodes provides readers with the keys to mastering their addiction by helping them uncover: why they feel the impulse, why they feel it when they do; and what they can do to address these emotional needs in another way.

From the Back Cover

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.

Review Quotes

"In this courageous and pioneering text, Dr. Dodes has produced a depth analysis and new way of understanding addictions for patients and clinicians alike . . . The Heart of Addiction distinguishes itself from other self-help books by not trying to supply pat, superficial answers . . . I have no doubt readers will be able to apply these unique ideas to their own lives." - Edward Hallowell, author of Driven to Distraction, Worry, and Connect
"In a field rife with misinformation, this book represents a bright beacon of light... I recommend it wholeheartedly." - The Psychoanalytic Quarterly