Many who struggle with addiction at some point blame themselves for their behavior, believing that who they are as a person is the cause of their addiction. This is even more true for those who, despite receiving treatment, continue to engage in addictive behavior. But as you will learn in this important module, addiction is an adaptive and understandable response to early life pain.

We are all negotiating our way through life as best as possible, doing our best to avoid pain and optimize the pleasure we experience in life. In this way, addiction is best understood as a problem emerging from a dynamic developmental process, not the outcome of some deficit or brokenness in you.