Daniel Wentsch

In today’s dopamine-rich ecosystem, we’ve all become primed for immediate gratification. We want to buy something, and the next day it shows up on our doorstep. We want to know something, and the next second the answer appears on our screen. Are we losing the knack of puzzling things out, or being frustrated while we search for the answer, or havin

Cigarette smokers are more likely than matched controls to discount monetary rewards (that is, they value them less if they have to wait longer for them). The more they smoke, and the more nicotine they consume, the more they discount future rewards.

One in four gastric bypass surgery recipients develops a new problem with alcohol addiction. In the wake of her surgery, Emily too became addicted to alcohol. The reasons are many.

Most people who are obese have an underlying food addiction, which is not adequately addressed with surgery alone.

As one patient put it, “With disulfiram, I only need to decide once a day not to drink. I don’t have to keep deciding all day long.”

Some people, most commonly East Asians, have a genetic mutation that causes them to have a disulfiram-like reaction to alcohol without the drug. These individuals have historically had lower rates of alcohol addiction.

For decades the wisdom of Alcoholics Anonymous dictated that abstinence is the only option for people with addiction.

But emerging evidence suggests that some people who have met criteria for addiction in the past, especially those with less severe forms of addiction, can return to using their drug of choice in a controlled way. In my clinical exper

We may meditate in hopes that it will lower our stress and anxiety in everyday life, but the practice of meditation is actually about learning to embrace this moment, right now, even if it’s uncomfortable, imperfect, or even painful.

My meditation and mindfulness practice has given me this freedom from the idea that I need some perfect thing in the future to be happy. I still want to have more impact on the world, I still want to live somewhere beautiful surrounded by people I love, I still want that partner that really gets me… but I no longer let these things distract me from