What is Addiction?
By Jesus Mendez Carbajal, APCC Jesus is a bilingual (Spanish/English) Associate Professional Clinical Counselor (APCC) who holds a B.A. in Chicana/o Studies with a minor in Women’s Studies, and an M.S. in Counseling from SDSU’s Community Based Block (CBB) Multicultural Community Counseling and Social Justice Education Program. Jesus understands that while the issues people face are personally experienced, they’re also connected to systems of power, privilege and oppression and their impact extends beyond the self. Overall, Jesus is a passionate life-long student of healing, plant knowledge, emotional wellness, mental health, and spirituality. Many people use substances to cope with personal and systemic problems. Substance use, substance abuse and addiction can be born out of many experiences including childhood trauma, chronic or acute mental and/or physical health challenges, traumatic experiences, job loss, housing or relationship loss, grief, death and loss, experiencing th...