“People need guidance and understanding, not judgment and stigma, and the sooner we realize this, the more lives we’ll be able to save.”
About Dr. Adi Jaffe
Dr. Adi Jaffe, PhD, is a UCLA-trained psychologist and one of the world's leading experts on addiction and behavior change — author of The Abstinence Myth and Unhooked, and founder of IGNTD.
Who is Dr. Adi Jaffe?
Adi Jaffe is a psychologist, author, speaker, and founder whose work centers on a single conviction: shame doesn't heal people — understanding does. His research and clinical frameworks challenge the one-size-fits-all, abstinence-only model of addiction recovery and replace it with an individualized, evidence-based approach to lasting behavior change.
His authority is earned on both sides of the problem. Before the doctorate and the published research, Adi spent years inside a methamphetamine addiction — an arc that ran through dealing, arrest, and jail before it ran through UCLA. That combination of lived experience and formal science is the foundation of everything he writes, teaches, and builds.
Credentials & Affiliations
PhD in Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) — doctoral and postdoctoral research focused on addiction and its treatment
Founder, IGNTD — a mental-health and addiction-recovery platform delivering individualized, shame-free treatment, including behavioral-health services for government and corrections partners
Author of two books (see below)
Psychology Today contributor — a long-running column on addiction and behavior change read by millions
TEDx speaker — on shame, addiction, and rethinking recovery
Executive coach and speaker — leadership audiences, professional associations, and organizations internationally
Books
The Abstinence Myth (2018) — Why abstinence-only recovery fails so many, and the individualized alternative. <!-- VERIFY: publisher + ISBN -->
Unhooked (Hachette; softcover edition June 2026) — The science of the hooks that drive compulsive behavior, and how to change them. <!-- VERIFY: hardcover year + ISBN -->
Frameworks & Contributions
The hook cycle — a mechanism-level account of why compulsive behaviors persist and where they can be interrupted
SPARO — Adi's framework mapping the pathway from stimulus to outcome in behavior change
EAT (Emotion → Attention → Thought) — a model of how internal states cascade into behavior
Published academic research on addiction and treatment
Jaffe, A., Shoptaw, S., Stein, J. A., Reback, C. J., & Rotheram-Fuller, E. (2007). Depression ratings, reported sexual risk behaviors, and methamphetamine use: latent growth curve models of positive change among gay and bisexual men in an outpatient treatment program. Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology, 15(3), 301.
Gordon, A., Jaffe, A., McLellan, A. T., Richardson, G., Skipper, G., Sucher, M., ... & Urschel III, H. C. (2017). How Should Remote Clinical Monitoring Be Used to Treat Alcohol Use Disorders?: Initial Findings From an Expert Round Table Discussion. Journal of Addiction Medicine, 11(2), 145.
Jaffe, A., Pham, J., Tarash, I., Getty, S. S., Fanselow, M. S., & Jentsch, D. J. (2014). The absence of blocking innicotine high-responders as a possible factor in the development of nicotine dependence. Open Addict J, 7, 8-16.
Where you can find his work
The Behavior Change Atlas (this site) · Psychology Today · IGNTD · his books · speaking engagements and media appearances.
Media & speaking inquiries:info@adijaffe.com
Written by the office of Dr. Adi Jaffe. Last reviewed: July, 2026. This page is the canonical biographical reference for Dr. Adi Jaffe.
DR. ADI JAFFE’S LETTER TO READERS
I’ve been researching, writing and helping individuals with issues related to shame, mental health, drug-addiction, sex-addiction, and gambling for over a decade. During this time I have been fortunate to continue learning from my clients, their families and the research work I continue doing. I believe that there is a path out of suffering for everyone I meet, their family members, friends, and loved ones. I am lucky to be able to help in the process.
Whatever you’re comfortable calling addiction (disease, affliction, syndrome or a moral failing) there’s no doubt that it’s having a great, negative, impact on those it affects.More than 500,000 deaths and a burden of more than $500 million dollars is attributed to substance abuse every year in the United States alone. It’s time we get real about the problem and stop using stigma and misinformation to hide behind.
I have studied what I call “The pathway to addiction,” the ways people become addicted and the reasons they may stay stuck in addiction. I’ve learned a lot about about the genetic, behavioral, and environmental influences on addiction and drug-abuse. In creating the IGNTD Recovery™ Program I’ve used that knowledge to benefit you. It's the only program of its kind.
As you likely know, I’ve had my own experiences with drug abuse and addiction, so my work in influences by my personal experience. Aside from my own experiences, I’ve seen literally hundreds of addicts and users through years of drug use. I hope to serve as a source of inspiration for struggling addicts who aren’t certain that they can still make something of their lives after all the devastation; I’ve been on both sides and I can assure you that it’s possible!
My goal is to use the latest research that we, as scientists, have uncovered about addiction to the public so that they can benefit now. Part of my work involves teaching university students and our clients about the addiction research I’ve been exposed to and the other part has to do with directly helping those who are struggling.
I want to do this because I feel that knowledge is a key ingredient not only in curing and fighting conditions (be they medical, academic, psychological, or otherwise), but also in simply being able to handle and accept things as they are more completely.
We tend to be more scared of things when we feel like we don’t understand them.
My writing, as well as the writing of other experts and addiction researchers, will hopefully allow you to understand addiction better, and therefore improve the way you approach it. That can do nothing but help in my opinion.
- Dr. Adi Jaffe