Addiction, according Alter and writer Maia Szalavitz “‘is really about the relationship between the person and the experience.’ It isn’t enough to ply someone with a drug or a behavior—that person also has to learn that the experience is a viable treatment for whatever ails them psychologically” (74). While Alter makes a distinction between behavioral and substance addictions, both terms fall under this umbrella definition of addiction. 

Behavioral addictions are addictions that function without the aid of substances, such as alcohol or drugs, and “arise when a person can’t resist a behavior, which, despite addressing a deep psychological need in the short-term, produces significant harm in the long-term” (20). Alter argues that behavioral addictions can be just as damaging and powerful as substance addictions. 

One of Alter’s solutions to behavioral addiction is to remove one’s triggers or temptations from one’s immediate environment, which he refers to as a central tenant behind behavioral architecture: “The missing piece in the treatment puzzle is to redesign your environment so temptations are as close to absent as possible. That’s the idea behind the technique of behavioral architecture” (273).