Coming to terms with addiction and mental illness is a highly personal, and important, adventure for me and for everyone who has an addict in his/her life, and for those who suffer with the disease themselves. To aid in the journey of understanding, I’ll write on old and new brain chemistry research (or the lack thereof) including addiction and related disorders, mental illness, drug treatments and legislation to explore an issue that has plagued us for centuries. My goal is to broaden the breadth of knowledge on addiction in the public scope and shed light on the deficiencies in research, but also, to keep forefront in mind the human element, the people we’re trying to help.