A journey into and out of heroin addiction

In this briefing I decided to use a fictitious character's life as the viewpoint to learn about addiction, as I feel it is important to look at the nature of the problem with which we are dealing.

'Addiction is a multi-faceted problem, involving psychological, biological and sociological aspects. Addiction is about people’s lives. It is about their substance-using careers. There are an infinite number of pathways in to and out of addiction. Here, I start to look at one person’s life, an imaginary life drawn from the lives of many people I have met or heard about. In later Briefings, we will consider what we can learn from Lydia’s life as a heroin addict, and as a recovering/recovered heroin addict, in order to help other people.'

A letter to a friend

In this briefing, I describe my thoughts about my change of career to an old neuroscience friend in America.

'I remember our times together in the neuroscience field very fondly. It was great! However, as you know, the time came when I felt I was not doing what I wanted to do – help people. Despite what I had achieved, and the great talk I could give on addiction and the brain, I felt that my work – and that of most other neuroscientists – was not actually helping people overcome substance use problems. I certainly made the right decision to leave neuroscience! I’m now in a fascinating field and I know that I am doing something that will contribute to helping people, albeit indirectly.'