The official Addictoholic Deconstructed: Addiction 101 video with downloadable slides. Also includes learning objectives, agenda, and presenter CV for CEU offerings. And a downloadable PDF version of The Addictoholic Workbook. After purchase, downloadable links will be sent.
In this video, Dr. Nicole Labor—Addiction Medicine Physician—provides a foundational breakdown of the neurobiology of addiction so you can understand what is actually happening in the brain.
This is not a general overview or surface-level explanation. It walks through the core mechanisms that drive addiction, including:
How addiction meets the medical definition of a disease
The role of dopamine in learning, motivation, and reinforcement
Why the brain begins to treat substances like survival
How memory systems (glutamate) create triggers and cravings
Why people continue to use despite negative consequences
The interaction between the midbrain and the frontal cortex
How stress, environment, and behavior reinforce the pattern
This video gives you the framework needed to understand addiction beyond willpower or “bad choices,” and sets the stage for applying that knowledge through the workbook and behavioral change.
Whether you are in recovery, supporting someone who is, or working in the field, this content is designed to help you stop guessing and start understanding the pattern you are trying to change.
This workbook is designed to be flexible and practical—it can be used in multiple settings depending on your needs, level of care, and stage of recovery.
It is not meant to be completed perfectly or all at once. It is meant to be used, revisited, and applied over time.
Individually
This workbook can be completed on your own as a structured way to better understand your brain, your patterns, and your recovery. You can move through it in order or focus on the sections that are most relevant to what you are currently struggling with.
With a therapist or counselor
The workbook can be used as a guide during individual sessions. It helps organize thoughts, identify patterns, and create more focused, productive conversations. Many of the questions are designed to deepen insight and support clinical work.
In group settings (IOP, PHP, or group counseling)
Sections of this workbook can be used as group topics or assignments. Facilitators can:
assign specific sections
guide discussion around prompts
use exercises to reinforce education and behavioral change
It works well for both structured programming and open discussion formats.
As part of a treatment program
Programs can use the workbook in full or integrate selected sections into their curriculum. The SURVIVE, STRIVE, ARRIVE, and THRIVE structure allows it to align with different stages of recovery and levels of stability.
As a supplement to education (like this course)
The workbook reinforces the concepts taught in the lecture. It takes the information and turns it into application—helping you connect the neurobiology of addiction to your own behaviors, triggers, and decision-making patterns.
You do not need to complete this workbook in one sitting or in a specific order.
Start where you are.
Early recovery → focus on SURVIVE
Understanding patterns → focus on STRIVE
Rebuilding life and identity → move into ARRIVE and THRIVE
Some sections may feel easy. Others may feel uncomfortable.
That’s not a sign you’re doing it wrong—it’s a sign you’re doing actual work.
This workbook is not a replacement for treatment.
It is a tool to support recovery—not do the work for you.
Real change happens through:
repetition
behavior change
and applying what you learn consistently over time
This is not something you “finish.”
This is something you use.
Learning objectives, agenda, CV and description as required for CEU applications