Addiction as an Attachment Disorder

The content of this book is extremely important. Attachment is healthy, and has very real beneficial effects on our physiology and emotional health. It's a shame this book is so poorly edited and redundant - not to mention absurdly priced. I read this book because someone mentioned it on my website's forum, which has been inundated with men desperate to recover from porn addiction. It solidly affirmed what I had noticed: Supportive contact with others is a vital part of these men's recovery, which is often long and agonizing. Flores's experience is clearly with alcohol/drug addicts, but what he has to say is also useful for anyone hooked on porn and not happy about it. His well documented message is that humans need interaction with close, trusted companions throughout life. Alas, they can't maintain these vital connections if they are hooked on a substance or activity that produces an overwhelming neurochemical blast. The subtler rewards of relationship just can't compete, even though they offer far greater benefits. Thus, porn, like any other addiction, becomes both a false substiute for, and an obstacle to, the genuine relationships humans need to thrive. Like it or not, we humans are ultimately more affected by our need for attachment than our need for pleasure. This is easily missed by porn users, whose brains can go out of balance, making human connection ever more challenging and unsatisfying. Symptoms include insomnia, depression, panic attacks, extreme social anxiety, irrational anger, despair, etc. (For more, see "The Road to Excess" [...].) Flores reminds us that many such symptoms disappear when the addict addresses the addiction that is causing them. Without this key knowledge, it's easy to end up on psychotropic drugs for depression or anxiety, which don't correct the underlying need for friendly interaction.

This book does an excellent job of integrating the research from many different disciplines within the field and explaining how they work together, which illuminates the problem and leads toward a workable solution. I especially enjoyed Flores' emphasis on interpersonal relationships when working with addicts.

I am really enjoying this book. It has a great premise of the lack of attachment as one of the causes of addiction and reasons for relapse. I would suggest this for anyone in the health care field of addiction or those dealing with it in friends and family.