Understanding Addiction

An innate desire to live life with the least amount of pain and the greatest amount of pleasure leaves each person vulnerable to addiction. For many, the reality of their lives is painful. Difficulties in relationships, insecurities, poverty, social isolation, personal unhappiness, and the pressures of modern living-all foster a mental tendency to deny or escape the awareness of pain and discomfort. This book is a very valuable resource for all those ill-informed about the nature of addiction, the extraordinary ease with which individuals become imprisoned by it, and its complex passage of distortion and destruction in the lives of both those who become addicted and of their families.

Its publication is important because it makes simple and accessible what is generally considered to be a very complex is- sue. The author, Michael Hardiman, addresses the subject of addiction with great sensitivity, clarity, and thoroughness. He also reaches into the heart of the matter to bear witness to the struggle and suffering of those addicted.

The importance of recognizing the unique nature of, and meaning expressed in, each person's addiction, is very well elaborated. So too are the physical and psychological aspects of addiction, as well as the nature of the spiritual quest, and the yearnings and longing for connection and bliss that drive individuals towards the "rewards" of alcohol and drugs.

Hardiman explores and examines some of the options for recovery, from self-help programs to the more specialized treatments, with a wide range of recovery options. This book is a clear statement that the care of those addicted should not be the preserve of a few specialists. It offers information and guidance on a wide range of recovery options.

This book should prove a reliable and readable resource for the layperson as well as professionals.

Michael Hardiman Ph.D. works as a psychologist, educator and independent scholar. The early part of his career featured work in the fields of counselling and personal development training. He specialised in the areas of recovery from early life trauma, and addiction. More recently he has engaged in the field of political philosophy with particular focus on the problem of human evil especially as it expresses itself in mass evildoing and genocide. He conducts training seminars and workshops nationwide to family centres, third level institutions and to adult education services. He is the author of six books. Michael lives and works in the West of Ireland.