The addiction treatment and recovery world has created a web of myths and misinformation that leaves troubled people utterly confused. Unfortunately, this confusion also seems to make our substance use problems more extreme and longer lasting. My ongoing goal is to break through this confusion with the facts and logic (my main work in this… Continue reading The most mind-numbing phrase in addiction rhetoric: “out of control”
Category: Fallacies
19 ugly truths about addiction and recovery that nobody wants to look at.
Some people really fall for the whole thing, hook, line, and sinker, and that leads to a lot of unnecessary pain. But here’s what’s really going on with addiction, treatment, and recovery – they are social constructs that are killing us: The entire concept of addiction – a state in which people are involuntarily using… Continue reading 19 ugly truths about addiction and recovery that nobody wants to look at.
Bassist Flea “recovered” from heroin “addiction” without treatment or 12 steps
Flea, the legendary bassist for The Red Hot Chili Peppers, wrote an interesting essay on addiction for Time Magazine. It tells both his own experience of getting over his drug problems without professional help, and his own ideas about addiction. He has a lot of great things to say, but like so much of what… Continue reading Bassist Flea “recovered” from heroin “addiction” without treatment or 12 steps
“Real alcoholics” more likely to recover than “heavy drinkers”
Real Alcoholics are more likely to recover than Heavy Drinkers according to data in the government’s latest large scale epidemiological study, NESARC-III.
Logical Fallacies In The Addiction Debate: #7 Appeal To Tradition and #8 Appeal To Common Practice
Traditions and common practices can be persuasive, but popularity of a given practice or view simply doesn’t prove it to be correct.
Logical Fallacies In The Addiction Debate: #5 Appeal To The Masses and #6 The Bandwagon Fallacy
Argumentum Ad Populum An Appeal To The Masses is one of the laziest, weak minded, and philosophically revealing fallacies one can engage in. In short, this is the form of such an argument: Conclusion X is true because everyone (or a majority of people) believes it. That’s all there is to it. It simply… Continue reading Logical Fallacies In The Addiction Debate: #5 Appeal To The Masses and #6 The Bandwagon Fallacy
Logical Fallacies In The Addiction Debate: #4 Appeal To Authority
Certainly, authority figures have been wrong about many important matters throughout the ages. For each controversial claim, we can find experts who offer vastly different conclusions. Therefore, a mere Appeal To Authority shouldn’t be enough to prove or disprove a claim – if you really care about the truth of a matter you need more than that. This fact doesn’t stop people from shouting down others in the addiction debate with nothing more than an Appeal To Authority though!
Logical Fallacies In The Addiction Debate: #3 Appeal To The Consequences Of A Belief
An Appeal To Consequences is often the first and last fallacious argument uttered in any debate about the disease model of addiction. This tactic may be persuasive, but it doesn’t prove anything.
Logical Fallacies In The Addiction Debate: #1 Ad Hominem and #2 Ad Hominem Tu Quoque
It seems impossible to have an honest debate about the nature of addiction and methods for overcoming it. Ad Hominem attacks run rampant in this game. Here we examine this fallacy in action in the great addiction debate.