Video length: 0:59
Transcript
[Camille Schrier speaking] What are some steps that people can take to lead themselves towards recovery? And many people have achieved long-term recovery.
[Nora Volkow speaking] The brain has the ability to heal itself. And so, the issue is what is necessary to help you achieve that healing? And medications can be incredibly helpful in the case of opioid addiction. They’re quite effective, but in many instances it may not be sufficient if you want to actually achieve complete recovery. Why? Because one of the factors that leads people to actually take drugs is isolation. That makes you very vulnerable for relapsing.
And so, when addressing the issue of addiction, we have to recognize that [with] the disease, there are the changes produced by the drug itself in the brain. But as the brain has changed, that person has changed his entourage or her entourage in his life, in a way that has isolated them in ways that are very dangerous.