A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From a renowned behavioral neuroscientist and recovering addict a
rare page-turning work of science that draws on personal insights to reveal how drugs work the
dangerous hold they can take on the brain and the surprising way to combat today's epidemic of
addiction. Judith Grisel was a daily drug user and college dropout when she began to consider
that her addiction might have a cure one that she herself could perhaps discover by studying
the brain. Now after twenty-five years as a neuroscientist she shares what she and other
scientists have learned about addiction enriched by captivating glimpses of her personal
journey. In Never Enough Grisel reveals the unfortunate bottom line of all regular drug use:
there is no such thing as a free lunch. All drugs act on the brain in a way that diminishes
their enjoyable effects and creates unpleasant ones with repeated use. Yet they have their
appeal and Grisel draws on anecdotes both comic and tragic from her own days of using as she
limns the science behind the love of various drugs from marijuana to alcohol opiates to
psychedelics speed to spice. With more than one in five people over the age of fourteen
addicted drug abuse has been called the most formidable health problem worldwide and Grisel
delves with compassion into the science of this scourge. She points to what is different about
the brains of addicts even before they first pick up a drink or drug highlights the changes
that take place in the brain and behavior as a result of chronic using and shares the
surprising hidden gifts of personality that addiction can expose. She describes what drove her
to addiction what helped her recover and her belief that a cure for addiction will not be
found in our individual brains but in the way we interact with our communities. Set apart by
its color candor and bell-clear writing Never Enough is a revelatory look at the roles drugs
play in all of our lives and offers crucial new insight into how we can solve the epidemic of
abuse.
