Craving for Ecstasy and Natural Highs
A Positive Approach to Mood Alteration (Second Edition)
Craving for Ecstasy and Natural Highs explains how the pursuit of pleasure can result in compulsion and loss of control, and explores positive ways to achieve lasting happiness. It provides insight on how to improve quality of life and how to offer support to students, clients, family, or friends whose lives may be compromised by addiction.
Early chapters address addiction through topics such as pleasure and the brain, food addictions and the ways food can alter neurochemistry, nicotine as an antidepressant, and the effect of stress hormones on mood. Later chapters discuss how negative behaviors can be managed and balanced through healthy behaviors such as exercise, which increases endorphins, learning to manage one's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, practicing mindfulness and meditation, eating well in the best and healthiest sense of the term, and nurturing intimate relationships.
Highly readable and engaging, Craving for Ecstasy and Natural Highs will appeal to students of addictive behavior, physical and mental health practitioners of all kinds, and anyone interested in discovering healthy ways to find satisfaction, wellness, and a natural sense of elation in life.
Early chapters address addiction through topics such as pleasure and the brain, food addictions and the ways food can alter neurochemistry, nicotine as an antidepressant, and the effect of stress hormones on mood. Later chapters discuss how negative behaviors can be managed and balanced through healthy behaviors such as exercise, which increases endorphins, learning to manage one's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, practicing mindfulness and meditation, eating well in the best and healthiest sense of the term, and nurturing intimate relationships.
Highly readable and engaging, Craving for Ecstasy and Natural Highs will appeal to students of addictive behavior, physical and mental health practitioners of all kinds, and anyone interested in discovering healthy ways to find satisfaction, wellness, and a natural sense of elation in life.
Harvey Milkman earned his Ph.D. at Michigan State University. Dr. Milkman is a professor of psychology at Metropolitan State College of Denver where he specializes in cognitive-behavioral approaches to mood alteration.
Stanley Sunderwirth is professor emeritus at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis and the author of numerous publications on brain chemistry and its effect on mind, mood, and behavior. He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry.
After completing her Ph.D., Katherine Hill did postdoctoral training at Oregon Health & Science University, studying models of drug and alcohol reward. Her areas of expertise include psychopharmacology, and cravings and addictions.
