When people hear "addiction research," they often assume it only applies in clinical settings. My experience as a research assistant at UNM in the MATEO Lab taught me the opposite: the core principles of behavior change are broadly applicable — to design, business, recovery, leadership, and the daily decisions that shape who we become.
What I learned working on protective behavioral strategies and motivational interviewing wasn't really about substances. It was about how people actually change — the gap between knowing better and doing better, and what closes it.
The most useful framework I picked up: change happens not when willpower wins, but when the environment stops asking willpower to fight. Most behavior change interventions fail because they target the wrong layer.
Top comments (0)