Autonomy is impossible as long as one is driven by anything.

The difference between passion and addiction is that between a divine spark and a flame that incinerates.

In the real world there is no nature vs. nurture argument, only an infinitely complex and moment-by-moment interaction between genetic and environmental effects.

We may not be responsible for the world that created our minds, but we can take responsibility for the mind with which we create our world.

Not why the addiction, but why the pain.

Endorphins are the chemical catalysts for our experience of key emotions that make human life, or any other mammalian life, possible.

[W]e might say that three factors need to coincide for substance addiction to occur: a susceptible organism; a drug with addictive potential; and stress. Given the availability of drugs, individual susceptibility will determine who becomes an addict and who will not[.]

What [my patients] care about is my presence or absence as a human being. They gauge with unerring eye whether I am grounded enough on any given day to co-exist with them, to listen to them as persons with feelings, hopes and aspirations as valid as mine. They can tell instantly whether I’m genuinely committed to their well-being or just trying to get them out of my way.

There is no addiction centre in the brain, no circuits designated strictly for addictive purposes. The brain systems involved in addiction are among the key organizers and motivators of human emotional life and behaviour; hence, addiction’s powerful hold on human beings.

Drugs, in short, do not make anyone into an addict, any more than food makes a person into a compulsive eater. There has to be a preexisting vulnerability. There also has to be significant stress [...] - but, like drugs, external stressors by themselves, no matter how severe, are not enough. [...]