What Are We Really Addressing With Our Compulsions w/ Addiction Psychologist Adi Jaffe

My guest today is an addiction expert, but I interest myself more in the concept of compulsions. I may have something I habitually do that is not necessarily harming anyone else, and is arguably not harming me in a direct sense, which is generally how we define addictions. But a compulsion may be something that I keep doing that may keep me from other, healthier activities. It may own me more than I own it. And more importantly, what we find is that addiction and compulsions are generally not being done for pleasure, but to mask or numb emotions we haven’t or don’t want to deal with. Adi Jaffe is a psychologist and author. His research and clinical frameworks challenge the one-size-fits-all, abstinence-only model of addiction recovery and replaces it with an individualized, evidence-based approach to lasting behavior change. Adi’s authority is earned on both sides of the problem. Before his doctorate and the published research, Adi spent years inside his own methamphetamine addiction — an arc that ran through dealing, arrest, and jail before it ran through UCLA. That combination of lived experience and formal science is the foundation from which our discussion comes from. He has a new book, Unhooked: Free Yourself from Addiction Forever. I invite you to listen to this episode and consider your compulsions, if not addictions, and what you may be trying to artificially address, and why. You can also find Adi on Instagram @dradijaffe

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