Addiction is not weak will: what happens to the reward system
Wanting grows, liking fades, and the brake works worst exactly when you need it. What really happens in the brain — and where that explanation fails.
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Addiction is not weak will. Posts on what happens to the reward system, how addiction works within a family, where support ends and enabling begins, and what a relapse really is.
Alcohol in the Slovenian family: how it is normalised until it breaks
Here alcohol rarely enters as a problem. It enters as ritual and hospitality, then becomes a tool and a rule of silence. How normalisation works, and when it breaks.
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Growing up with a parent's drinking: what a child carries into adulthood
A radar that will not switch off, responsibility that is not yours, and discomfort in calm relationships. What stays with an adult who grew up around drinking.
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Codependency: when you rescue someone else and lose yourself
A pattern in which your worth hangs on how much of someone else you hold up. How to recognise it, why the concept is contested, and where the work really starts.
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Am I an addict? Questions that say more than quantity
How much you drink is the least reliable measure, because it can always be adjusted. Six questions that are harder to bend - and where this reasoning stops.
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Phone and screen addiction: habit or problem?
"Phone addiction" is not a diagnosis, but the distress is real. What separates a habit from a problem, why screen time says little, and where the research overreaches.
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Work addiction: the one addiction people reward
Nobody congratulates you for drinking more, but working more brings praise and promotion. That is why this pattern stays invisible longest - and why hours are the wrong measure.
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A relapse is not a defeat: what really happens after a slip
A lapse is an event; a relapse is a decision made over the following days. What happens in the first hours, why shame is more dangerous than the substance, and what helps.
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When your partner is addicted: where support ends and enabling begins
Enabling is not weakness but a learnt response that once worked. How to tell supporting the person from supporting the addiction, and how to set a boundary that holds.
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Relationship addiction: why some people cannot be alone
There is no diagnosis, but the pattern is real: closeness used to regulate an inner state. What the reward system does, and how the cycle can be broken.
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