Kayla Weir’s Reviews > In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction > Status Update
Kayla Weir
is on page 222 of 480
“Why, then, are narrow genetic assumptions so widely accepted and, in particular, so enthusiastically embraced by the media? The neglect of developmental science is one factor. Our preference for a simple and quickly understood explanation is another, as is our tendency to look for one-to-one causations for almost everything. Life in its wondrous complexity does not conform to such easy reductions.”
— Dec 21, 2025 09:43AM
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Kayla’s Previous Updates
Kayla Weir
is on page 291 of 480
“Drugs do not make the addict into a criminal; the law does.”
— Dec 21, 2025 03:30PM
Kayla Weir
is on page 249 of 480
“Addictions can never truly replace the life needs they temporarily displace. The false needs they serve, no matter how often they are gratified, cannot leave us fulfilled. The brain can never, as it were, feel that it has had enough, that it can relax and get on with other essential business.
— Dec 21, 2025 03:18PM
Kayla Weir
is on page 238 of 480
“There is no such thing as a good addiction. Everything a person can do is better done if there is no addictive attachment that pollutes it. For every addiction—no matter how benign or even laudable it seems from the outside—someone pays a price.”
— Dec 21, 2025 03:11PM
Kayla Weir
is on page 236 of 480
“ If I’ve learned anything, it’s that I have to be responsible for my own fear of emptiness. The fear is not personal—on the contrary it’s pretty much universal—but I got the void I got, and it’s not going anywhere. When I can recognize that, I don’t make the mistake of confusing it with who I am, or worse, expending a lot of energy trying to make it go away by any available means.”
— Dec 21, 2025 09:50AM
Kayla Weir
is on page 224 of 480
If genetics ruled our fate, we would not need to blame ourselves or anyone else. Genetic explanations get us off the hook. The possibility does not occur to us that we can accept or assign responsibility without taking on the useless baggage of guilt or blame.”
— Dec 21, 2025 09:45AM
Kayla Weir
is on page 223 of 480
“We human beings don’t like feeling responsible: as individuals for our own actions; as parents for our children’s hurts; or as a society for our many failings. Genetics—that neutral, impassive, impersonal handmaiden of Nature—would absolve us of responsibility and of its ominous shadow, guilt.
— Dec 21, 2025 09:45AM
Kayla Weir
is on page 221 of 480
“It’s not that genes do not matter—they certainly do. It’s only that they do not and cannot determine even simple behaviors, let alone complex ones like addiction. Not only is there no addiction gene, there couldn’t be one.”
— Dec 21, 2025 09:41AM
Kayla Weir
is on page 217 of 480
“ Often they see no link between childhood experiences and their self-harming habits. If they speak of the connection, they do so in a distanced manner that still insulates them against the full emotional impact of what happened.”
— Dec 21, 2025 09:38AM
