Cocaine addicts have trouble making judgments about rewarding and punishing behaviors, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine found.

“There?s a misconception that addiction is just a problem with your personality or character or you just need to suck it up,” said Dr. Geoffrey Schoenbaum, assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology and lead researcher on the study. “It?s clear to us now that in people who are addicted, the brain has really been altered in fundamental ways.”