Judith Grisel was drinking and using other drugs by the time she was 13. Within a decade she'd been kicked out of three schools, became homeless, had contracted Hepatitis C from sharing needles, and had lost the respect of virtually everyone she knew, including herself. Faced with the choice between an early grave and abstinence, Judy reasoned that better understanding the neural substrates of substance use disorders might provide an alternative to self-destruction. Today, she's been clean and sober for over three decades and is a renowned neuroscientist and teacher. Her story weaves brain science with experience to explain what we know about the causes and consequences of addiction.

In 2019 Judy published a bestselling book Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction, which has since garnered a worldwide audience. Dr. Grisel is a compelling speaker, and has been invited to share her insights at the World Economic Forum in Davos, on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and Science magazine’s podcast, among many others. Judy attributes much of her success in recovery and in neuroscience to many of the same attributes that gave rise to her disordered drug use, and posits that widespread community efforts based in scientific understanding are needed to effectively address the addiction pandemic.

Regular use of any psychoactive drug leads to adaptive changes in the brain that produce the opposite effect of the drug. Chronic stimulants result in lethargy, sedatives lead to anxiety and insomnia, and euphoriants guarantee misery. These consequences are so predictable because they follow directly from fundamental attributes of the nervous system: a capacity to recognize, predict, and adapt to change in order to maintain a stable internal state. This talk will explain the neural and behavioral changes associated with addiction, as well as why some people are more prone to addictive disorders than others. In particular, we’ll discover how early experiences have long-lasting impacts on brain development that promulgate substance use disorders and draw specific lessons from neuroscience to help guide effective intervention and prevention efforts.

Judith Grisel is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Her research on the use and abuse of recreational drugs began during adolescence, and after getting clean and sober in her twenties, she went on to earn a Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and gain expertise in behavioral genetics as a post-doctoral fellow at the Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland. Professor Grisel’s research is focused on better understanding the neural predisposition for addiction, as well as the role of sex differences in the causes and consequences of substance use disorders. In 2019 she published a NYTimes bestseller Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction, which has since been published in over a dozen languages. Dr. Grisel is a compelling speaker, and has been invited to share her insights at the World Economic Forum in Davos (2020) and on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, WGBH, and Science magazine’s podcast, among many others.