Craving for Ecstasy: The Consciousness and Chemistry of Escape

This book puts the science in how certain personality types are attracted to different drugs because of the nuerotransmitters they produce. Each personality type, such as an adventurous person who likes to jump out of airplanes, would be susseptible to the addiction of cocaine, because both acts enduce the same endorphines in the brain, thus creating the same high. Each drug is addressed and considered for personality types that might become susseptible to that drug. Fascinating look at how nuerotransmitters and personality types come together to create certain types of addictions and preferences for certain drugs.

.The authors argue for a broad definition of addiction as "self-induced changes in neurotransmission that result in behavior problems." Addictions are grouped into three major categories: satiety, stimulation, and fantasy. Research demonstrates that the biochemical bases for addictions in each group are similar. Thus compulsive use of depressant drugs involves many of the same neurological mechanisms as activities such as overeating and watching television; a similar relationship is found among stimulant use and other thrill seeking activities, such as skydiving and gambling; use of 'hallucinogenic' drugs is related to other activities of compulsive fantastication, such as religious fanaticism and schizophrenia. My lay opinion is that some of these parallels may not be quite as strong as they are argued to be in the book; nonetheless the thesis is generally valid, and the broad scope of addiction is a concept worthy of further exploration. Certainly it represented a refreshing and progressive development at the time of the book's publication. It will be interesting to see how the authors incorporate new developments in the field of addictions research and in clinical practice when their new work (Craving for Ecstasy: How Our Passions Become Addictions and What We Can Do About Them) is published. The work includes a good deal of technical information and many interesting anecdotes from the lives of people whose behaviors have taken over their lives. It also contains a good deal of practical information and advice on recovery for those with more than an academic interest in the subject. Considering that it was written by two people, it also reads quite well.