Being Ashamed of Drinking Prompts Relapse, Not Recovery
Embarrassment over an excessive-drinking session doesn’t necessarily lead to more sobriety.
Szalavitz's latest book is Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential — and Endangered. It is co-written with Dr. Bruce Perry, a leading expert in the neuroscience of child trauma and recovery.
Maia Szalavitz
Maia Szalavitz is a neuroscience journalist obsessed with addiction, love, evidence-based living, empathy and pretty much everything related to brain and behavior. She is the co-author of Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential — and Endangered (Morrow, 2010) and The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog (Basic, 2006), both with Dr. Bruce D. Perry. Her 2006 book, Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids (Riverhead, 2006) is the first book-length exposé of the “tough love” business. Szalavitz has been published in TIME Magazine, the New York Times, Elle, Scientific American Mind, the Washington Post, New Scientist and Psychology Today, among many others. She has been awarded the American Psychological Associations Division 50 Award for Contributions to the Addictions and the Media Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Articles from Contributor
Diet-Soda Mixers Can Lead to Quicker Intoxication
Diet mixers can make you more drunk than higher-calorie options
Wider Use of Antidote Could Lower Overdose Deaths by Nearly 50%
Distributing naloxone and training people to use it can cut the death rates from overdose nearly in half, according to a new study.
Registries Don’t Keep Sex Offenders from Restricted Areas
A surprising percent of offenders move to restricted areas
How Your Brain Tells You When It’s Time for a Break
It’s all about the reward
FDA Action on Vicodin May Mean More Pain, Not Less Addiction or Overdose
Stricter rules for prescribing opioids may not be the only answer to curbing addiction to painkillers
Q&A: Merry Widows and Some Surprising Truths about Grief
A group of widows finds their own way to move on after losing loved ones
Why Personality May Matter in Preventing Alcoholism
A program that takes personality into account may help to identify and reduce teen-drinking rates.
How Effective Are Tactics Used on TV Shows to Treat Troubled Teens?
Terrifying teens by making them lie in coffins, forcing them to spend a night on a frigid street or a bare prison cell— these harsh measures are used in reality shows in an attempt to put delinquents back on the straight and …
Revisions to Mental Health Manual May Turn Binge Drinkers into ‘Mild’ Alcoholics
Are you an alcoholic— or just a problem drinker? It may not matter, according to the latest version of the DSM, psychiatry’s diagnostic manual.
New Study Suggests Autism Can be ‘Outgrown’
There is more evidence that a minority of autistic children may eventually overcome their developmental issues, but experts caution that such recovery is rare.
How Disasters and Trauma Can Affect Children’s Empathy
Do children become more kind and empathetic after a disaster— or does the experience make them more focus more on self-preservation?
How Scarcity Leads to Spending
Will economic uncertainty make you save more — or spend more? The answer may depend on your childhood experience, a new study suggests.
