ADDICTED

Addiction is usually discussed through the object: alcohol, opioids, gambling, food, sex, phones, games. ADDICTDEAD asks a harder question: what is the substance or behavior doing for the person, and what must replace that function if recovery is to last?
Drawing on history, neuroscience, clinical observation, public-health evidence, policy, mutual help, and the arts, Niklas S Osterman examines addiction as both a medical condition and a human way of coping. He defends treatments that keep people alive while refusing to confuse survival with the whole of recovery. Medication can reduce death and suffering. It cannot by itself create housing, work, belonging, agency, or meaning.
The book follows addiction from ancient altered states and colonial trade through prohibition, the opioid crisis, modern treatment systems, and proposed recovery models built around responsibility, community, creativity, and care. It distinguishes evidence from observation and asks institutions to be as accountable for outcomes as the people they treat.