Addiction Psychologist: Why Drugs Are So Hard To Quit (It's Not About Willpower) Dr. Adi Jaffe

Dr. Adi Jaffe is a UCLA-trained psychologist, nationally recognized addiction expert, and bestselling author of The Abstinence Myth and Unhooked. Drawing from both his clinical expertise and his personal experience overcoming addiction and incarceration, he challenges traditional, shame-based recovery models and helps people address the emotional patterns driving destructive behaviors. Today on the show we discuss why addiction is often a solution to deeper emotional pain rather than the problem itself, how trauma and social anxiety can drive compulsive substance use, why removing the substance without addressing the underlying pattern can lead to relapse or replacement behaviors, how changing your internal narrative can reduce the need to escape, the daily practices that rebuild confidence and emotional stability over time, and why setbacks can become lessons that accelerate lasting change and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices