ABOUT THE EPISODE:
When Dr. Nzinga Harrison was recently approached by her son, a high school senior, about going to his first party, she consented. He was unsurprised by her followup question: “Do you think there will be drugs there?” As an addiction psychiatrist and M.D. specializing in addiction medicine, Dr. Harrison had been talking with him about substances since he was very young, so the question wasn’t awkward. “Yeah, probably,” he replied. As her stomach twisted, she realized that the years of preparation for this stage of his life were about to be tested – if not at the party, then sometime soon afterward.

In the two years since our favorite doctor was last on the show, Dr. Harrison has organized much of her extensive knowledge about the roots of substance use disorders into a new book: Un-addiction: 6 Mind-Changing Conversations That Could Save a Life. The framework is comprehensive and data-driven, but also plainly written and easy to understand. I tried using sticky notes to mark the best parts, but gave up when I realized I was marking almost every page.

In this conversation, Dr. Harrison lays out these six conversations, sharing with us how the conversation with her son progressed, and covering a range of other topics, including:

• Conversational scripts for talking to kids about substances
• The importance of asking, “What do you know?” without judgment
• The nascent idea of “pre-addiction” and how understanding it can change the trajectory for someone struggling
• How your ZNA (zip code at birth) predicts health outcomes better than your current zip code
• How cultural traditions and rituals can create risk factors

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Un-Addiction book
• Eleanor Health
• Dr. Nzinga Harrison’s website

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