An Interview with Dr. Judy Grisel
Looking back, it is evident that the struggles that Dr. Judy Grisel first encountered as a young woman led her to achieve the many things she has accomplished. A professor of neuroscience and psychology at Bucknell University, New York Times best-selling author, contributor at The Washington Post and The Guardian, and a TEDx speaker, Dr. Grisel’s multifaceted successes are hard-won. Her path, however, was not always so clear.
Dr. Grisel’s areas of focus at Bucknell University include pharmacology and genetics, and she uses her considerable expertise at the nexus of both to search for the root cause of drug addiction. In particular, her lab studies how differences in sex can contribute to the roles of stress and endorphins on drug reward. Dr. Grisel’s dedication to this research stems from personal experience; Her original motivation to pursue research in this field was to cure her own addiction.
Grisel explains in a TedX talk that she had her first drink at 13 years old and was “off to the races” in terms of developing an addiction to alcohol. After getting kicked out of several schools and her own home, Grisel ended up in a treatment center just after her 23rd birthday. It was then and there that she set her mind to curing her illness by pursuing a P.h.D. in neuroscience. “I figured, geez, if I have a disease in my brain, maybe I can cure my brain, and then I will not be so self-destructive,” the neuroscientist explained to The Women’s Network Magazine.
At the start of her undergraduate studies, Grisel remembers, she was “just taking steps” towards sobriety and putting one foot in front of the other. But once the 20-something Grisel set foot in a lab and started collecting data, she found a new form of excitement in science. She believes that “it was a good fit, because science is so exploratory and adventurous in a way that’s not totally dissimilar from an act of drug addiction.” This newfound passion for learning and research stuck, and Grisel went on to gain her M.A. and P.h.D. in Behavioral Science and Psychology at the University of Colorado. While Grisel’s path towards finding her passion has been atypical in some ways, she prefers it that way and even rejects the idea of a linear career path. “I’m always suspicious a little bit of the very linear paths, because I don’t think we’re that great at predicting ourselves in the future, let alone in the future outside of ourselves,” Grisel suggested. Instead of attempting to plan out every aspect of our lives, the successful author, speaker, scientist, and professor feels that the best way to assure happiness in your career is simply to pursue something that you care about. “I do feel like the most trustworthy strategy is to really find something interesting and devote ourselves to it,” she said.
This philosophy of devoting herself to what interests her has proven to be successful for the researcher and writer who published her first book, “Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction,” in 2019. Although Grisel didn’t have much prior writing experience, she wanted to share her story in the most effective way possible. Believing that personal accounts lead to the greatest interest in understanding a given cause, Grisel was motivated to write about her own experience with addiction. While Grisel admits that it was much easier to write about data and science than about herself, she understood that she had to include her personal narrative as a way to help people learn. “I had a desire to share knowledge in a way that would be helpful,” Grisel explained, “and I realized that narrative and personal story is such an important way to help people learn.”
In fact, helping people learn—about science, the importance of vulnerability and empathy, and reducing the stigma behind addiction—is really what Grisel is most passionate about. Whether she’s teaching an audience of students, readers, or scientists, passion and an openness to changing fuel her career path and have led her to become the multi-disciplinary professional she is today. “I was kind of just taking steps,” Grisel said, referring again to the start of her career, “and then the ‘hats’ came as a function of doing what was interesting and worthwhile for me to do.”
Grisel loves her work and research on addiction, but sometimes putting one foot in front of the other and taking steps is more difficult than other days. “I think that some days, I feel discouraged,” she admitted. “There’s so much suffering. And I also can really relate to the suffering... I can remember, very well, feeling hopeless.” This is one way that Grisel’s personal connection to the object of her studies remains ever-relevant.
According to data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, drug-involved overdose deaths have increased since the start of the pandemic, something that has not gone unnoticed by Grisel. While the statistics and numbers can be frightening at times, she has not lost hope that there is a solution out there — one that scientists and researchers can discover through transparency, compassion, and empathy. “Sometimes I am hopeful that this place that we’re in that seems to be growing in darkness in terms of mental health issues and addictive disorders is kind of the prerequisite for recognizing the ways that we need to change,” Grisel said, contemplating many of the issues and events that have been making headlines over the past two years from the same perspective that drove her to take action in her own career. “And I guess I don’t know what that will look like, just like I didn’t know what my path would look like,” she concluded.
Despite hardships and obstacles, Dr. Grisel’s career has followed a path that reflects her own genuine curiosities and interests, and as a result, she is endlessly inspired. As a scientist, professor, author, and speaker, Grisel believes that finding something bigger than ourselves that really motivates and excites us is the hardest part of creating a successful career. If we take that task seriously, we can then be rewarded with careers that we enjoy for years, and with jobs we love that turn into other amazing jobs that we may never have even imagined. “I do think it’s a wonderful privilege to be able to focus on our art, or our writing, or our laboratory test tubes, or whatever it is, to devote our efforts to something we really care about,” Grisel observed. “And not everybody in the world has that. Some people are just trying to survive another night. But some of us are lucky. And so we can, we can do that.”