You know that I have written that I believe that substance abuse should not be labeled as either a disease or a failure of willpower but should simply be destigmatized. https://medium.com/beingwell/is-substance-abuse-a-personal-failure-of-willpower-or-a-disease-that-deserves-medical-treatment-418928edae46 But for people who need explanations or reasons for things, your article reminds me of one of the better explanations I have heard over the years. You talk about the amygdala as our fear center, which it is. It is also our pleasure center, and one of the most primitive structures in the brain. The prefrontal cortex is the most evolved part and as you point out is the source of our reasoning. The explanation I heard is that in the substance abusers' brains, the amygdala is hyperactive and thus its signals overwhelm the signals from the cortex and thus people make the irrational choices to use substances abusively. Thus the disease vs choice concept is described as a disease affecting the ability to make proper choices. In that context, it is talked about how the amygdala gets hyper-excited from the pleasing feelings of the substance. Libby recently wrote about using emotional intelligence-building tools, of which mindfulness practice is a major component, to help with substance abuse. Your article and hers tie together nicely. https://medium.com/change-your-mind/healing-through-connection-6966e7b86bdb I also note that the dual nature of the amygdala as the center for both pleasant and unpleasant feelings supports the scientific articles that you cite in your euphoria article that state that both unhealthy euphoria and anhedonia result from problems with the amygdala.