Joseph A. Pursch, MD

Addicts are people who have learned how to give themselves a quick chemical fix or achieve an emotional high when they either want to or have to change how they feel, and when they want to ignore real-life problems. Most people do that, but the next morning, they feel sick or foolish. They don't do it again because it didn't work for them. What makes addicts different is that they are willing-or feel compelled-to do it again and again even though they "know" that doing so will get them into trouble.

Despite the public's growing acceptance of addiction as a biopsychosocial disease from which recovery is possible, an ideological chasm persists between psychiatry AA.