Addiction as excessive appetite

The excessive appetite model of addiction is summarized. The paper begins b y considering the forms of excessive appetite which a comprehensive model s hould account for: principally, excessive drinking, smoking, gambling, eari ng, sex and a diverse range of drugs including at least heroin, cocaine and cannabis. The model rests, therefore, upon a broader concept of what const itutes addiction than the traditional, more restricted, and arguably mislea ding definition. The core elements of the model include: very skewed consum ption distribution curves; restraint, control or deterrence; positive incen tive learning mechanisms which highlight varied forms of rapid emotional ch ange as rewards, and wide cue conditioning; complex memory schemata; second ary, acquired emotional regulation cycles, of which 'chasing', 'the abstine nce violation effect' and neuroadaptation are examples; and the consequence s of conflict. These primary and secondary processes, occurring within dive rse sociocultural contexts, are sufficient to account for the development o f a strong attachment to an appetitive activity, such that self-control is diminished, and behaviour may appear to be disease-like. Giving up excess i s a natural consequence of conflict arising from strong and troublesome app etite. There is much supportive evidence that change occurs outside expert treatment, and that when it occurs within treatment the change processes ar e more basic and universal than those espoused by fashionable expert theori es.