They’re screaming it from the rooftops: “addiction is a disease, and you can’t stop it without medical treatment”! But why are they screaming it so loud, why are they browbeating us about it, why is it always mentioned with a qualifier? You don’t hear people constantly referring to cancer as “the disease of cancer” – it’s just “cancer”, because it’s obvious that cancer is a disease, it’s been conclusively proven that the symptoms of cancer can’t be directly stopped with mere choices – therefore no qualifier is needed. On the other hand, addiction to drugs and alcohol is not obviously a disease, and to call it such we must either overlook the major gaps in the disease argument, or we must completely redefine the term “disease.” Here we will analyze a few key points and show that what we call addiction doesn’t pass muster as a real disease.
Real Diseases versus The Disease Concept or Theory of Drug Addiction
In a true disease, some part of the body is in a state of abnormal physiological functioning, and this causes the undesirable symptoms. In the case of cancer, it would be mutated cells which we point to as evidence of a physiological abnormality, in diabetes we can point to low insulin production or cells which fail to use insulin properly as the physiological abnormality which create the harmful symptoms. If a person has either of these diseases, they cannot directly choose to stop their symptoms or directly choose to stop the abnormal physiological functioning which creates the symptoms. They can only choose to stop the physiological abnormality indirectly, by the application of medical treatment, and in the case of diabetes, dietetic measures may also indirectly halt the symptoms as well (but such measures are not a cure so much as a lifestyle adjustment necessitated by permanent physiological malfunction).
In addiction, there is no such physiological malfunction. The best physical evidence put forward by the disease proponents falls totally flat on the measure of representing a physiological malfunction. This evidence is the much touted brain scan[1]. The organization responsible for putting forth these brain scans, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Addiction (NIDA), defines addiction in this way:
Addiction is defined as a chronic relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain – they change it’s structure and how it works. These brain changes can be long lasting, and can lead to the harmful behaviors seen in people who abuse drugs.
The NIDA is stating outright that the reason addiction is considered a disease is because of the brain changes evidenced by the brain scans they show us, and that these changes cause the behavior known as addiction, which they characterize as “compulsive drug seeking and use”. There are three major ways in which this case for the disease model falls apart:
- the changes in the brain which they show us are not abnormal at all
- people change their behavior IN SPITE OF the fact that their brain has changed in response to repeated substance use jump to section
- there is no evidence that the behavior of addicts is compulsive (compulsive meaning involuntary) (point two addresses this, as well as some other research that will be presented) jump to section
This all applies equally to “alcoholism” as well. If you’re looking for information on alcoholism, the same theories and logic discussed here are applicable; wherever you see the term addiction used on this site, it includes alcoholism.
Brain Changes In Addicts Are Not Abnormal, and Do Not Prove The Brain Disease Theory
On the first count – the changes in the brain evidenced by brain scans of heavy substance users (“addicts”) do not represent a malfunctioning brain. They are quite normal, as research into neuroplasticity has shown us. Whenever we practice doing or thinking anything enough, the brain changes – different regions and neuronal pathways are grown or strengthened, and new connections are made; various areas of the brain become more or less active depending upon how much you use them, and this becomes the norm in your brain – but it changes again as you adjust how much you use those brain regions depending on what you choose to think and do. This is a process which continues throughout life, there is nothing abnormal about it. Here, Sharon Begley describes neuroplasticity: [2]
The term refers to the brain’s recently discovered ability to change its structure and function, in particular by expanding or strengthening circuits that are used and by shrinking or weakening those that are rarely engaged. In its short history, the science of neuroplasticity has mostly documented brain changes that reflect physical experience and input from the outside world.
So, when the NIDA’s Nora Volkow and others show us changes in the brain of a substance user as compared to a non-substance user, this difference is not as novel as they make it out to be. They are showing us routine neuroplastic changes which every healthily functioning person’s brain goes through naturally. The phenomenon of brain changes isn’t isolated to “addicts” or anyone else with a so-called brain disease – non-addicted and non-depressed and non-[insert brain disease of the week here] people experience neural adaptations too. One poignant example was found in the brains of London taxi drivers, as Begley and Jeffrey Schwartz pointed out in The Mind and The Brain. [4]
Is Being A Good Taxi Driver A Disease?
A specific area of the brain’s hippocampus is associated with creating directional memories and a mental map of the environment. A team of researchers scanned the brains of London taxi drivers and compared their brains to non-taxi drivers. There was a very noticeable difference, not only between the drivers and non-drivers, but also between the more experienced and less experienced drivers:
There it was: the more years a man had been a taxi driver, the smaller the front of his hippocampus and the larger the posterior. “Length of time spent as a taxi driver correlated positively with volume in…the right posterior hippocampus,” found the scientists. Acquiring navigational skills causes a “redistribution of gray matter in the hippocampus” as a driver’s mental map of London grows larger and more detailed with experience. [4]
So, the longer you drive a cab in London (that is, the longer you exert the mental and physical effort to quickly find your way around one of the world’s toughest to navigate cities), the more your brain physically changes. And the longer you use drugs, the more your brain changes. And indeed, the longer and more intensely you apply yourself to any skill, thought, or activity – the more it will change your brain, and the more visible will be the differences between your brain and that of someone who hasn’t been focused on that particular skill. So, if we follow the logic of the NIDA, then London’s taxi drivers have a disease, which we’ll call taxi-ism, that forces them to drive taxis. But the new diseases wouldn’t stop there.
Learning to play the piano well will change your brain – and if you were to compare brain scans of a piano player to a non-piano player, you would find significant differences. Does this mean that piano playing is a disease called Pianoism? Learning a new language changes your brain, are bilingual people diseased? Athletes’ brains will change as a result of intensive practice – is playing tennis a disease? Are soccer players unable to walk into a sporting goods store without kicking every ball in sight? We could go on and on with examples, but the point is this – when you practice something, you get better at doing it, because your brain changes physiologically – and this is a normal process. If someone dedicated a large portion of their life to seeking and using drugs, and their brain didn’t change – then that would be a true abnormality. Something would be seriously wrong with their brain.
Its not just physical activity that changes our brains, thoughts alone can have a huge effect. What’s more, whether the brain changes or not, there is much research which shows that the brain is slave to the mind. As Begley points out elsewhere, thoughts alone can create the same brain activity that would come about by doing things[2]:
Using the brain scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging, the scientists pinpointed regions that were active during compassion meditation. In almost every case, the enhanced activity was greater in the monks’ brains than the novices’. Activity in the left prefrontal cortex (the seat of positive emotions such as happiness) swamped activity in the right prefrontal (site of negative emotions and anxiety), something never before seen from purely mental activity. A sprawling circuit that switches on at the sight of suffering also showed greater activity in the monks. So did regions responsible for planned movement, as if the monks’ brains were itching to go to the aid of those in distress.
So by simply practicing thinking about compassion, these monks made lasting changes in their brain activity. Purely mental activity can change the brain in physiologically significant ways. And to back up this fact we look again to the work of Dr Jeffrey Schwartz[3], who has taught OCD patients techniques to think their way out of obsessive thoughts. After exercising these thought practices, research showed that the brains of OCD patients looked no different than the brains of those who’d never had OCD. If you change your thoughts, you change your brain physically – and this is voluntary. This is outside the realm of disease, this shows a brain which changes as a matter of normality, and can change again, depending on what we practice choosing to think. There is nothing abnormal about a changing brain, and the type of changes we’re discussing aren’t necessarily permanent, as they are characterized to be in the brain disease model of addiction.
These brain change don’t need to be brought on by exposure to chemicals. Thoughts alone, are enough to rewire the very circuits of the human brain responsible for reward and other positive emotions that substance use and other supposedly “addictive” behaviors (“process addictions” such as sex, gambling, and shopping, etc.) are connected with.
The Stolen Concept of Neuroplasticity in the Brain Disease Model of Addiction
Those who claim that addiction is a brain disease readily admit that the brain changes in evidence are arrived at through repeated choices to use substances and focus on using substances. In this way, they are saying the disease is a product of routine neuroplastic processes. Then they go on to claim that such brain changes either can’t be remedied, or can only be remedied by outside means (medical treatment). When we break this down and look at it step by step, we see that the brain disease model rests on an argument similar to the “stolen concept”. A stolen concept argument is one in which the argument denies a fact on which it simultaneously rests. For example, the philosophical assertion that “reality is unknowable” rests on, or presumes that the speaker could know a fact of reality, it presumes that one could know that reality is unknowable – which of course one couldn’t, if reality truly was unknowable – so the statement “reality is unknowable” invalidates itself. Likewise, the brain disease proponents are essentially saying “neuroplastic processes create a state called addiction which cannot be changed by thoughts and choices” – this however is to some degree self-invalidating, because it depends on neuroplasticity while seeking to invalidate it. If neuroplasticity is involved, and is a valid explanation for how to become addicted, then we can’t act is if the same process doesn’t exist when it’s time to focus on getting un-addicted. That is, if the brain can be changed into the addicted state by thoughts and choices, then it can be further changed or changed back by thoughts and choices. Conditions which can be remedied by freely chosen thoughts and behaviors, don’t fit into the general understanding of disease. Ultimately, if addiction is a disease, then it’s a disease so fundamentally different than any other that it should probably have a completely different name that doesn’t imply all the things contained in the term “disease” – such as the idea that the “will” of the afflicted is irrelevant to whether the condition continues.
People change their addictive behavior in spite of the fact that their brain is changed – and they do so without medication or surgery (added 4/18/14)
In the discussion above, we looked at some analogous cases of brain changes to see just how routine and normal (i.e. not a physiological malfunction) such changes are. Now we’re going to look directly at the most popular neuroscientific research which purports to prove that these brain changes actually cause “uncontrolled” substance use (“addiction”).
The most popular research is Nora Volkow’s brain scans of “meth addicts” presented by the NIDA. The logic is simple. We’re presented with the brain scan of a meth addict alongside the brain scan of a non-user, and we’re told that the decreased activity in the brain of the meth user (the lack of red in the “Drug Abuser” brain scan presented) is the cause of their “compulsive” methamphetamine use. Here’s how the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) explains the significance of these images in their booklet – Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction :
Just as we turn down the volume on a radio that is too loud, the brain adjusts to the overwhelming surges in dopamine (and other neurotransmitters) by producing less dopamine or by reducing the number of receptors that can receive signals. As a result, dopamine’s impact on the reward circuit of a drug abuser’s brain can become abnormally low, and the ability to experience any pleasure is reduced. This is why the abuser eventually feels flat, lifeless, and depressed, and is unable to enjoy things that previously brought them pleasure. Now, they need to take drugs just to try and bring their dopamine function back up to normal.
[emphasis added]
They go on that these same sorts of brain changes:
..may also lead to addiction, which can drive an abuser to seek out and take drugs compulsively. Drug addiction erodes a person’s self-control and ability to make sound decisions, while sending intense impulses to take drugs.
[emphasis added]
That image is shown when NIDA is vaguely explaining how brain changes are responsible for “addiction.” But later on, when they try to make a case for treating addiction as a brain disease, they show the following image, which tells a far different story if you understand more of the context than they choose to mention:
Again, this graphic is used to support the idea that we should treat addiction as a brain disease. However, the authors mistakenly let a big cat out of the bag with this one – because the brain wasn’t treated at all. Notice how the third image shows a brain in which the red level of activity has returned almost to normal after 14 months of abstinence. That’s wonderful – but it also means that the NIDA’s assertions that “Addiction means being unable to quit, even in the face of negative consequences”(LINK) and “It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain… These brain changes… can lead to the harmful behaviors seen in people who abuse drugs” are dead wrong.
When these studies were done, nobody was directly treating the brain of methamphetamine addicts. They were not giving them medication for it (there is no equivalent of methadone for speed users), and they weren’t sticking scalpels into the brains of these meth addicts, nor were they giving them shock treatment. So what did they do?
These methamphetamine addicts were court ordered into a treatment program (whose methodology wasn’t disclosed in the research) which likely consisted of a general mixture of group and individual counseling with 12-step meeting attendance. I can’t stress the significance of this enough: their brains were not medically treated. They talked to counselors. They faced a choice between jail and abstinence. They CHOSE abstinence (for at least 14 months!) – even while their brains had been changed in a way that we’re told robs them of the ability to choose to quit “even in the face of negative consequences.” [5]
Even with changed brains, people are capable of choosing to change their substance use habits. They choose to stop using drugs, and as the brain scans above demonstrate – their brain activity follows this choice. If the brain changes caused the substance using behavior, i.e. if it was the other way around, then a true medical intervention should have been needed – the brain would’ve needed to have changed first via external force (medicine or surgery) before abstinence was initiated. They literally wouldn’t have been able to stop for 14 months without a real physical/biological medical intervention. But they did…
Substance Use Is Not Compulsive, It Is A Choice
In his classic book Addiction & Opiates, Alfred R Lindesmith PhD explained the requirements of reliable scientific theories explaining the causes of things such as heroin addiction:
…a genuine theory that proposes to explain a given phenomenon by relating it to another phenomenon must, in the first place, have clear empirical implications which, if not fulfilled, negate the theory.
If the theory is that neural adaptations alone cause uncontrolled behavior, then this proposition can easily be shown to be false. I demonstrated above that in the midst of having fully “changed” or “addicted” brains, people do indeed stop using substances, so essentially, it is case closed. But the depths to which the brain disease theory of addiction can be negated go even further, because the basic theory of addiction as representing uncontrolled substance use has never been explained. Explanation of the mechanism by which substance use happens without the individual’s consent is conspicuously missing – yet such explanation is a necessary part of such a theory, as Lindesmith writes (again in Addiction & Opiates):
…besides identifying the two types of phenomenon that are allegedly interrelated, there must be a description of the processes or events that link them. In other words, besides affirming that something causes something else, it is necessary to indicate how the cause operates to produce the alleged effect.
“Here Comes the Bogey-Man” by Goya, circa 1799
There doesn’t seem to be any explanation or evidence that substance use is involuntary. In fact, the evidence, such as that presented above, shows the opposite. Nevertheless, when the case for the disease is presented, the idea that drug use is involuntary is taken for granted as true. No evidence is ever actually presented to support this premise, so there isn’t much to be knocked down here, except to make the point I made above – is a piano player fundamentally incapable of resisting playing the piano? They may love to play the piano, and want to do it often, they may even be obsessive about it, but it would be hard to say that at the sight of a piano they are involuntarily driven by their brain to push aside whatever else they need to do in order to play that piano.
There is another approach to the second claim though. We can look at the people who have subjectively claimed that their substance use is involuntary, and see if the offer of incentives results in changed behavior. Gene Heyman covered this in his landmark book, Addiction: A Disorder of Choice[3]. He recounts studies in which cocaine abusers were given traditional addiction counseling, and also offered vouchers which they could trade in for modest rewards such as movie tickets or sports equipment – if they proved through urine tests that they were abstaining from drug use. In the early stages of the study, 70% of those in the voucher program remained abstinent, while only 20% stayed abstinent in the control group which didn’t receive the incentive of the vouchers. This demonstrates that substance use is not in fact compulsive or involuntary, but that it is a matter of choice, because these “addicts” when presented with a clear and immediately rewarding alternative to substance use and incentive not to use, chose it. Furthermore, follow up studies showed that this led to long term changes. A full year after the program, the voucher group had double the success rate of those who received only counseling (80% to 40%, respectively). This ties back in to our first point that what you practice, you become good at. The cocaine abusers in the voucher group practiced replacing substance use with other activities, such as using the sports equipment or movie passes they gained as a direct consequence of abstaining from drug use – thus they made it a habit to find other ways of amusing themselves, this probably led to brain changes, and the new habits became the norm.
Long story short, there is no evidence presented to prove that substance use is compulsive. The only thing ever offered is subjective reports from drug users themselves that they “can’t stop”, and proclamations from treatment professionals that the behavior is compulsive due to brain changes. But if the promise of a ticket to the movies is enough to double the success rate of conventional addiction counseling, then it’s hard to say that substance users can’t control themselves. The reality is that they can control themselves, but they just happen to see substance use as the best option for happiness available to them at the times when they’re abusing substances. When they can see other options for happiness as more attractive (i.e. as promising a greater reward than substance use), attainable to them, and as taking an amount of effort they’re willing to expend – then they will absolutely choose those options instead of substance use, and will not struggle to “stay sober”, prevent relapse, practice self-control or self-regulation, or any other colloquialism for making a different choice. They will simply choose differently.
But wait… there’s more! (Added 4/21/14) Contrary to the claims that alcoholics and drug addicts literally lose control of their substance use, a great number of experiments have found that they are really in full control of themselves. Priming dose experiments have found that alcoholics are not triggered into uncontrollable craving after taking a drink. Here’s a link to the evidence and a deeper discussion of these findings: Do Addicts and Alcoholics Lose Control? Priming dose experiments of cocaine, crack, and methamphetamine users found that after being given a hit of their drug of choice (primed with a dose) they are capable of choosing a delayed reward rather than another hit of the drug.
Three Most Relevant Reasons Addiction Is Not A Disease
So to sum up, there are at least two significant reasons why the current brain disease theory of addiction is false.
- A disease involves physiological malfunction, the “proof” of brain changes shows no malfunction of the brain. These changes are indeed a normal part of how the brain works – not only in substance use, but in anything that we practice doing or thinking intensively. Brain changes occur as a matter of everyday life; the brain can be changed by the choice to think or behave differently; and the type of changes we’re talking about are not permanent.
- The very evidence used to demonstrate that addicts’ behavior is caused by brain changes also demonstrates that they change their behavior while their brain is changed, without a real medical intervention such as medication targeting the brain or surgical intervention in the brain – and that their brain changes back to normal AFTER they VOLITIONALLY change their behavior for a prolonged period of time
- Drug use in “addicts” is not compulsive. If it was truly compulsive, then offering a drug user tickets to the movies would not make a difference in whether they use or not – because this is an offer of a choice. Research shows that the offer of this choice leads to cessation of substance abuse. Furthermore, to clarify the point, if you offered a cancer patient movie tickets as a reward for ceasing to have a tumor – it would make no difference, it would not change his probability of recovery.
Addiction is NOT a disease, and it matters. This has huge implications for anyone struggling with a substance use habit.
References:
- 1) NIDA, Drugs Brains and Behavior: The Science of Addiction, sciofaddiction.pdf
- 2) Sharon Begley, Scans of Monks’ Brains Show Meditation Alters Structure, Functioning, Wall Street Journal, November 5, 2004; Page B1, http://psyphz.psych.wisc.edu/web/News/Meditation_Alters_Brain_WSJ_11-04.htm
- 3) Gene Heyman, Addiction: A Disorder of Choice, Harvard University Press, 2009
- 4) Sharon Begley and Jeffrey Schwartz, The Mind And The Brain, Harper Collins, 2002
- 5) Links to the 2 methamphetamine abuser studies by Nora Volkow:
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/21/23/9414
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/158/3/377
Important Notes from the author to readers and especially commenters:
On “badness” or immorality:
Please do not attribute to me the idea that heavy substance users must be “bad” or “immoral” if they are in fact in control of and choosing their behavior. I do not think this. I think that at the time they’re using, it is what they prefer, given what life options they believe are available to them – and I don’t think it’s my job to decide what other people should prefer for themselves, and then declare them bad if they don’t live up to my vision of a “good” life. That’s what the disease recovery culture does, de facto, when they present the false dichotomy of ‘diseased or bad’. To say that addiction is chosen behavior is simply to make a statement about whether the behavior is within the control of the individual – it is not a judgment of the morality of the behavior or the individual choosing it.
On willpower:
Please do not attribute to me the suggestion to “use willpower.” I have not said that people should use willpower, nor do I think it’s a coherent or relevant concept in any way, nor do I think “addicts lack willpower” or that those who recover have more willpower, nor, and this is important, do I believe that a choice model of addiction necessarily implies willpower as the solution.
“Addicts” do not need extra willpower, strength, or support, to change their heavy substance use habits if that is what they want to do. They need to change their preference for heavy substance use, rather than trying to fight that preference with supposed “willpower.”
On compassion:
Please don’t accuse me of not having compassion for people who have substance use problems. You do not know that, and if you attack my motives in this way it just shows your own intellectual impotence and sleaze. I have a great deal of compassion for people with these problems – I was once one such person. I am trying to get at the truth of the nature of addiction, so that the most people can be helped in the most effective way possible. I don’t doubt the compassion of those who believe addiction is a disease, and I hope you’ll give me the same benefit of the doubt. I assure you I care and want the best for people – and I don’t need to see them as diseased to do so. When you see someone who’s gotten themselves into a mess, don’t you want to help, even if it’s of their own making? Why should we need to believe they have a disease to help them if the mess is substance use related? I don’t get that requirement.
Some Agreement I’ve Found From Addiction Researchers (added 6/10/14)
I began working out my understanding of the brain disease model back in 2005 as I started working on a book about addiction; published this article in 2010; and was happy to find in 2011 when I went back to work with Baldwin Research that they had arrived at a similar conclusion. The way they stated it amounted to “either everything is addiction, or nothing is” – referring to the fact that the brain changes presented as proof of addiction being a brain disease are so routine as to indicate that all behavior must be classified as addiction if we follow the logic.
I was also gratified to have found a neuroscientist who arrived at the same conclusions. I think Marc Lewis PhD and I may disagree on a few things, but it seems we may see eye to eye on the logic I presented above about such brain changes being routine, and thus not indicative of disease. Check what he wrote in 2012 for the PLOS Blog, Mind The Brain:
every experience that has potent emotional content changes the NAC and its uptake of dopamine. Yet we wouldn’t want to call the excitement you get from the love of your life, or your fifth visit to Paris, a disease. The NAC is highly plastic. It has to be, so that we can pursue different rewards as we develop, right through childhood to the rest of the lifespan. In fact, each highly rewarding experience builds its own network of synapses in and around the NAC, and that network sends a signal to the midbrain: I’m anticipating x, so send up some dopamine, right now! That’s the case with romantic love, Paris, and heroin. During and after each of these experiences, that network of synapses gets strengthened: so the “specialization” of dopamine uptake is further increased. London just doesn’t do it for you anymore. It’s got to be Paris. Pot, wine, music…they don’t turn your crank so much; but cocaine sure does. Physical changes in the brain are its only way to learn, to remember, and to develop. But we wouldn’t want to call learning a disease.
….
In my view, addiction (whether to drugs, food, gambling, or whatever) doesn’t fit a specific physiological category. Rather, I see addiction as an extreme form of normality, if one can say such a thing. Perhaps more precisely: an extreme form of learning. No doubt addiction is a frightening, often horrible, state to endure, whether in oneself or in one’s loved ones. But that doesn’t make it a disease.
I think that quote is very important, because it highlights neuronal changes that occur in the same region implicated in addiction (whereas the examples I presented earlier in the article represented some other regions).
In a brilliant paper titled “The naked empress: Modern neuro science and the concept of addiction”, Peter Cohen of The Centre for Drug Research at University of Amsterdam, states that:
The notions of addiction transformed into the language of neurology as performed by authors like Volkov, Berridge, Gessa or De Vries are completely tautological.
He essentially argues that Volkow et al take for granted that heavy drug and alcohol use is uncontrolled, identify neural correlates, and present them as evidence of uncontrollability. Yet they don’t do so with other behaviors, and he provides plenty of examples. He notes that they start with assumptions that certain patterns of behavior (e.g. heavy drug use) are uncontrolled, and others are controlled – based purely on cultural prejudices. He accurately identifies addiction as a learned behavior, or as routine bonding to a thing, and then expresses something very close to my thesis presented above (that all learned/intensely repeated behaviors result in “brain changes”).
The problem of course is that probably all learning produces temporary or lasting ‘change in neural systems’. Also, continuation of learned behavior may be functional in the eyes and experience of the person but less so in the eyes of the outsider. Who is right? We know of people remaining married in spite of-in the eyes of a beholder- a very bad marriage. Who speaks of lasting ‘neural change’ as the basis of the continued marriage? But, even when a person herself sees some behavior as counter functional, it is not necessarily seen as addiction. It may be seen as impotence, ingrained habit or unhappy adaptation. It all depends on which behavior we discuss, not on the brain.
The great points contained in this article would be done an injustice if I tried to sum them up here, so check it out for yourself at The Center for Drug Research University of Amsterdam. As with Marc Lewis, I suspect that Peter Cohen and I might have some substantial disagreements about the full nature of addiction and human behavior in general, but I think we at least agree that the changes in the brain of an “addict” do not necessarily represent disease, and more likely represent a routine process.
Writing in 2013 for the journal Frontiers In Psychiatry, esteemed behavioral and addiction researcher Gene Heyman pointed out something so painfully obvious that we don’t even take notice – no causal link has ever been found between the neural adaptations caused by excessive substance use and continued heavy use. That is, correlation is not causation:
With the exception of alcohol, addictive drugs produce their biological and psychological changes by binding to specific receptor sites throughout the body. As self-administered drug doses greatly exceed the circulating levels of their natural analogs, persistent heavy drug use leads to structural and functional changes in the nervous system. It is widely – if not universally – assumed that these neural adaptations play a causal role in addiction. In support of this interpretation brain imaging studies often reveal differences between the brains of addicts and comparison groups (e.g., Volkow et al., 1997; Martin-Soelch et al., 2001) However, these studies are cross-sectional and the results are correlations. There are no published studies that establish a causal link between drug-induced neural adaptations and compulsive drug use or even a correlation between drug-induced neural changes and an increase in preference for an addictive drug.
Did you get that? Let me repeat the words of this experienced researcher, PhD, and lecturer/professor from Boston College and Harvard who, in addition to publishing scores of papers in peer reviewed medical journals has also had an entire book debunking the disease model of addiction by Harvard University press (I say all of this about his credentials so that I can hopefully STOP getting commenters who say “but you’re not a doctor, and what are your credentials wah, wah, wah,……” here’s a “credentialed” expert who essentially agrees with most of what I’ve written in this article – so please, for the love of god, save your fallacious ad hominems and appeals to authority for another day!)- he (Gene Heyman PhD) said this, as of 2013:
There are no published studies that establish a causal link between drug-induced neural adaptations and compulsive drug use or even a correlation between drug-induced neural changes and an increase in preference for an addictive drug.
And this was in a recently published paper in a section headed “But Drugs Change the Brain”, in which he continued to debunk the “brain changes cause addiction” argument by saying:
There are no published studies that establish a causal link between drug-induced neural adaptations and compulsive drug use or even a correlation between drug-induced neural changes and an increase in preference for an addictive drug. For example, in a frequently referred to animal study, Robinson et al. (2001) found dendritic changes in the striatum and the prefrontal cortex of rats who had self-administered cocaine. They concluded that this was a “recipe for addiction.” However, they did not evaluate whether their findings with rodents applied to humans, nor did they even test if the dendritic modifications had anything to do with changes in preference for cocaine in their rats. In principle then it is possible that the drug-induced neural changes play little or no role in the persistence of drug use. This is a testable hypothesis.
First, most addicts quit. Thus, drug-induced neural plasticity does not prevent quitting. Second, in follow-up studies, which tested Robinson et al.’s claims, there were no increases in preference for cocaine. For instance in a preference test that provided both cocaine and saccharin, rats preferred saccharin (Lenoir et al., 2007) even after they had consumed about three to four times more cocaine than the rats in the Robinson et al study, and even though the cocaine had induced motoric changes which have been interpreted as signs of the neural underpinnings of addiction (e.g., Robinson and Berridge, 2003). Third [an analysis of epidemiological studies] shows that the likelihood of remission was constant over time since the onset of dependence. Although this is a surprising result, it is not without precedent. In a longitudinal study of heroin addicts, Vaillant (1973) reports that the likelihood of going off drugs neither increased nor decreased over time (1973), and in a study with rats, Serge Ahmed and his colleagues (Cantin et al., 2010) report that the probability of switching from cocaine to saccharin (which was about 0.85) was independent of past cocaine consumption. Since drugs change the brain, these results suggest that the changes do not prevent quitting, and the slope of [an analysis of epidemiological studies] implies that drug-induced neural changes do not even decrease the likelihood of quitting drugs once dependence is in place.
Read the full paper here – it’s an amazingly concise summary of the truths about addiction that contradict many of the accepted opinions pushed by the recovery culture – Heyman, G. M. (2013). Addiction and Choice: Theory and New Data. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 4. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00031
Why Does It Matter Whether or Not Addiction Is A Brain Disease?
When we accept the unproven view that addiction and alcoholism are brain diseases, then it will lead us down a long, painful, costly, and pointless road of cycling in and out of ineffective treatment programs and 12 step meetings. You will waste a lot of time without finding a permanent solution. When we examine the evidence, throw out the false disease concepts, and think rationally about the problem we can see that addiction is really just a matter of choice. Knowing this, we can bypass the rehabs, and find the true solution within ourselves. You can choose to end your addiction. You can choose to improv your life. You can choose to stop the endless cycle of “recovery” and start living. You don’t need to be a victim of the self-fulfilling prophecy that is the brain disease model of addiction. There are alternative views and methods of change which I hope you’ll take the time to learn about on The Clean Slate Addiction Site.
There are many different ways to argue against the brain disease model of addiction. I have only presented 3 basic arguments here. But beyond just addiction, many modern claims of “brain disease” are fatally flawed, in that they are founded on the logically impossible philosophical stance of psychological determinism. From this standpoint, any evidence of any brain activity is immediately interpreted as a “cause” of a particular mind state or behavior – with no regard for free will/the ability to choose one’s thoughts and thus behaviors. If you understand the impossibility of psychological determinism (or “epiphenomenalism”) then you’ll take all such claims with a grain of salt. For a detailed examination of this issue, see the following article: The Philosophical Problem with the Brain Disease Model of Addiction: Epiphenomenalism
How To End Addiction, Substance Dependence, Substance Abuse, Alcoholism, and General Drug and Alcohol Problems (updated 11/4/2015)
Due to the fact that most conventional rehab and addiction treatment programs follow the false belief that addiction is a disease, they are generally not effective at dealing with these problems – so I really can’t ethically recommend any “treatment” programs other than a run of the mill detoxification procedure if you feel you may be experiencing physical withdrawal symptoms – you can find that through your local hospital or emergency room; by asking your primary care doctor; or by calling 911 if you feel your life is in danger due to withdrawal (beware that withdrawal from alcohol and some prescription drugs such as the class known as benzodiazepines can lead to fatal seizures). But what comes after detoxification is simply personal choices, and treatment programs actually discourage productive personal choices by attempting to control people and feeding them nonsense such as the disease theory and idea of powerlessness.
If you want to end or alter your own substance use habits you need to make the choice to do so. Many readers will object to this answer as flippant, cruel, out of touch, et cetera. I realize this, but I chose to change, and in reality everyone who moves beyond problematic substance use chooses to change as well.
There is too much to unpack within what people believe is contained in the statement “choose to change.” I have tried to address some of that here in the past, but I realize this article is not the place to do that. This article’s scope needs to remain limited to the question of whether or not addiction is a disease.
My conclusion is that addiction is freely chosen behavior, and that the person who continues heavy substance use despite mounting costs still sees heavy substance use as their best viable option at the time they’re doing it – even though they recognize many costs and downsides. Choosing to change then, really means that they rethink whether heavy substance use is their best viable option. The only way I know to come to new conclusions is to re-examine the issues methodically, and this may often mean gathering new information and perspectives. Thus, the help that can be given to troubled heavy substance users is information. Helpers can provide accurate information that troubled people can use to change their perspective and come to believe they have better viable options than continued heavy problematic substance use.
I endeavor to give accurate information here that will help people to understand that change is possible, and that they are not doomed to a lifetime of addiction. Hopefully, this helps them on their way to believing in better viable options.
About this article:
I originally published this article on September 25, 2010. I have since added some significant supporting work I was able to find over the years, and those additions are noted. Some other minor edits from the original article are not noted.
Author
Hi, I’m, Steven Slate, the author of this post and of all content on this website. Yes, I was what you would call an “addict.” If you want to know more about me, go to the About page. If you want quotes from PhDs and such (as if I haven’t given enough here already) go to my Quotes From Experts About Addiction page. Please be civil in your comments, and many of your angry comments may already be answered on my FAQs page, so maybe check that out before you scream at me.
Brain disease theory was spawned by Alcoholics Anonymous and its juvenile 12 step mythology. [See Marty Mann circa 1945] The “fake brain disease” theory and 12 step mythology are inextricably linked. [For Dummies like William, Dep and John, that means they can’t be separated]
The “fantasy disease” model of addiction has NEVER been scientifically proven. The “fake disease” model hasn’t helped to reduce stigma, reduce overdoses, or even help people solve their substance use problems. All the promises of the “phony disease” model have fallen short. It’s made things far worse for addicts and their families. These facts are unequivocal and indisputable.
What does it benefit a person to hold onto -and embrace- the belief that they’re diseased and predestined to remain so forever? How does it help anyone to falsely believe they are made powerless by a fake brain disease and because of this phony brain disease, have lost all control [choice] over their lives?
It doesn’t benefit them- it destroys them. The fake brain disease model is what has kept millions of people enslaved to addiction. Treatment based on this phony brain disease nonsense and its infected support groups like AA, NA, and CA doesn’t “cure” addicts-doesn’t heal addicts-doesn’t help addicts. The “Fake brain disease” model C R E A T ES addicts.
P.S. John, I reviewed all of Cornell University’s undergraduate and graduate degree offerings and there is no “Addiction Psychology” degree to be found.
There most certainly is many psychology courses at cornell and ive taken pervious addiction psychology courses at other schools including Aspen University. Once again i dont believe in 12 step bullshit but the beliefs of the people here have nothing to back them up. Im done with this nonsense this has just become a pissing war to attack addicts you sir can go to hell. Become addicted to heroin for 10 years then tell me your thoughts
John must be SO PROUD of his addiction! Maybe he will STOP someday, and learn basic grammar skills, and graduate from high school! There is no way in hell he is in ANY COLLEGE (accredited or NOT!), His lack of grammar skills could not get him a MIDDLE SCHOOL DIPLOMA!
With regards to the “disease THEORY”, there was also something called the “The Jellineck Curve” that was excreted out by a “Dr. E.M. Jellineck”. It also postulated (with NO. OBJECTIVE. EVIDENCE!), this “hypothesis” of “alcoholism” being a “disease”. It has NOT been accepted for having ANY SCIENTIFIC VALUE! Just like the “Alcoholics Anonymous” book. The JAMA review of 10/14/1939, notes its complete LACK of medical or scientific value (“morerevealed.com” for that source!).
Where is my lack of grammar skills buddy??? Besides this is a comments section on a website what the fuck does it matter? But really show me my horrible grammar. And like I said to the other guy if I could post pics I would show you my degree in addiction psych and proof I’m going to Cornell. Oh shit wait no I wouldn’t because I don’t care enough to take the time! I’m flattered you think I care about your opinion enough to make up stories lmao!! Your such a know it all fat ass sitting behind your keyboard eating cheeseburgers. fat ass!!!!!
LOL… John went from being in “the process of getting [his] Bachelor’s degree in addiction psychology” from Cornell University to “having taken psychology courses at Aspen University” and letting us know that Cornell University offers psychology courses too. This type of deceitfulness is typical of people of his ilk.
First John writes:
June 1, 2017 at 2:11 PM
“Also I’m in the process of getting my bachelors degree in addiction psychology. addiction IS a disease this article is the perfect example of the word fallacy! “
Then John Writes:
John says
June 5, 2017 at 4:39 PM
“I’m actually almost half way through getting my bachelors in addiction psychology and I was a heroin addict for a long time and I know more addicts than most.”
Then:
john says
June 6, 2017 at 12:13 AM
man your getting really pissed off aren’t you? my school is Cornell University in NY I’m thinking you’ve probably heard of it so ya lets see you get it shut down good luck!!!!
john says
June 6, 2017 at 12:21 AM
holy shit Cornell U was just shut down by some loser nobody! oh never mind false alarm
Then:
john says
June 6, 2017 at 2:58 PM
“I’m attending one of the top schools in the states for addiction psychology and you have the nerve to say my brain is full of mush?”
john says
June 6, 2017 at 3:23 PM
As for my college like I said Cornell University one of the top colleges in the US and I would fucking love to see any one retard such as you or atheistically yours shut it down because you thing they have the wrong idea of addiction good luck!!!
Then I challenge his truthfulness:
papamick1956 says
June 7, 2017 at 7:19 AM
P.S. John, I reviewed all of Cornell University’s undergraduate and graduate degree offerings and there is no “Addiction Psychology” degree to be found.
Finaly John writes:
John says
June 7, 2017 at 12:07 PM
There most certainly is many psychology courses at cornell and ive taken pervious addiction psychology courses at other schools including Aspen University.
I’m currently at Cornell taking psychology and I have a degree for addiction psych at Aspen before I transferred in case you didn’t know its normal to get an associates then transfer to another college for a bachelors or masters. If I could post a pic of my degree in addiction psych I would. Get over yourself I don’t care enough about you to make up a story…
I’m sorry I said I was currently taking addiction psych when I’m currently in psych but seeing my final major it to have a masters in psychology focused on addiction psych pretty much I’m correct. Sorry I didn’t clarify for your slow mind to process correctly. Maybe now you understand. Or are you going to say I’m lying still? Either way whatever blows your skirt up fairy. Don’t forget to polish that bald head buddy.
You don’t need grammar skills to do your research. What’s with the anal retentiveness on grammar. You know the types that have a problem with that? Perfectionist, egotistical, always needing to be right individuals who often end up addicted. A recovering addict has learned to let go of pride, ego, needing to be right and needing to be perfect. They have learned to be humble, they have learned to be vulnerable, to feel the feelings they have rather than numbing them with drugs or alcohol. They learn coping skills. They learn alternative thinking processes to replace their negative stinking thinking (you might want to explore this further). They learn more constructive ways of living, relating, and being in the world. Grammar has little to do with it. Now I have a master’s of science degree with a BA and experience in health information administration (with a 15 year specialty in addiction treatment), medical editing (with high requirements for grammar and punctuation), and an MS in special education including specialties and experience in learning disabilities, cognitive impairment, and autism. My grammar and spelling skills can be impeccable. But, I let my hair down and let it slide sometimes just to stay humble, because who gives a crap sometimes? There are more important things. Similarly with degrees and credentials if you know how to read and do your homework. Some of the most bum-looking and acting people are geniuses.
Alcoholism is a disease within the definition of disease, and it has nothing to do with choice or morals or anything else. Just that it manifests within the definition of disease. Get a life. Let the addict get the treatment that meets his or her individual needs and preferences (something I do know about) and stop bickering over which is better or who is right.
I’m really curious where I spelled anything wrong anyway…
What “definition” of “disease” are you claiming this NON-MEDICAL condition called “alcoholism” somehow meets? Considering “alcoholism” is NOT. EVEN. A. CLINICAL. TERM, and is NOT EVEN RECOGNIZED AS A DIAGNOSABLE MEDICAL CONDITION (have ANY MD in America submit the diagnosis of “alcoholism” to an HMO, and see if they get paid for it!). “Alcoholism” is a bullshit word invented by AA in the 1930’s, when its bullshit book was published that NO REPUTEABLE PUBLISHER EVEN THEN would publish! All the nonsense of “letting go” of all these IMAGINARY “character defects” (that are only discussed in the AA book, as opposed to ANY actual MEDICAL JOURNAL!) do not support this “disease” idea at all! And what was the “definition” again? Please cite a NON-GOVERNMENT AGENCY, or NON-12 STEP SOURCE! Bring it. I’ll wait!
The threads on this site suck. Full attack on the 12-step model. Good God! Oops, sorry, you’re an atheist, how ‘vogue.” An insecure one at that, having to wipe out what you yourself in your ego (because nobody really knows eh), cannot grasp or believe, so ergo or ego, it must not be. If it works for some, let it work. If it doesn’t work for you go off into your “cerebral” world and choose your own method. If it works, great. If it doesn’t slink on back and give the 12 steps a try… It works for a lot of people. Just take out the God part, it can still work…substitute with Neil Degrasse Tyson or the universe or the big bang or whatever else you find bigger than yourself (if you are capable of that)….
BULLSHIT! The “12 Step Model” is a complete and total FAILURE of ANY kind of “treatment”! Not one word of the 12 Steps acknowledges the individual with the addiction, nor are the steps even phrased to acknowledge the PRESENT (like living in the past is somehow “therapeutic”!). As for “ego”-here’s one NONE OF THE 12 STEPS WILL ACKNOWLEDGE: TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO YOU! GROW THE FUCK UP! KNOCK OFF YOUR IMMATURE, ASNINE, SELF-CENTERED, CRYBABY EXISTENCE, AND LEARN TO LIVE IN THE GOD-DAMNED PRESENT! You can’t “work” PLURALIZED, PAST-TENSE PHRASED “STEPS” that claim an inanimate object like “alcohol” has “power” over the individual. That is beyond fucking stupid!
Try to remain calm. You do not understand the 12 steps. This is clear from your statements. You are overly focused on the higher power concept.
Some things are beyond are control, and here is the key… at the moment. A person new to treatment does not have the knowledge or the skills to just stop…and stay sober (please note, there are often no absolutes, so you may find exceptions). There are also those who stop using, but their behavior still screams addiction, it just manifests differently. But I digress. When a person doesn’t have the knowledge or the skills, turning it over to a higher power is quite useful and helpful.
Yes, they do look into the past, because alc and drug use can obliterate that awareness. They have to look at their past dysfunctional thinking, feeling, and behaviors (here is where treatments you may prefer come in Rational Emotive therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, etc, etc.) They do take an inventory of themselves….who me? This takes courage (try it). But then they do more. They don’t stay there in the past. They make amends when feasible. And each day, the monitor their current behavior, to do exactly as you say, to take responsibility for their behavior and actions to stay sober. (Ever been in the hot seat of responsibility…you are missing out, friend). And yes, many are actually dealing with biological cravings, as well as behavioral habits that make that sobriety challenging beyond their ….abilities at the moment (call it control if you will)…..God/universe/the force/pet rock, help me….quite useful. And when they get to that point, they try and help others on a similar path, because that’s just a nice, universally humane thing to do. You could do worse. Some purists won’t allow meds/drugs for cravings, some do…add them in if you will but don’t throw out what can also be useful about the 12 steps, unless you want to. But realize, for some people this fits their belief systems, and therefore for them have a higher chance of success, than it will for you. I know these people. Their sobriety from 12 steps is real. Relax. Let go man, try it out, you may find it helpful.
In the last 25 years, treatment facilities that promote the fake brain disease model of addiction in the US has tripled to over 14,000 and the annual revenue generated by these deplorable charnel houses has also tripled to over 36 billion dollars.
Yet drug overdose death rates continue to rise in a nationwide epidemic. This is proof enough that the disease model of addiction is not only wrong and useless but dangerous and DEADLY as well. It also proves that the philosophy and culture of 12 step groups is at best, complete horseshit and at worst, severely psychologically damaging to its recipients.
The poisonous support groups infected with the foolish and juvenile fantasy that addiction is a disease have also prospered off of families in crisis. The childish dogma and deplorable gibberish of these 12 step groups has NEVER worked to help people truly recover from substance abuse.
“You are broken at your core” is the essence of 12 step ideology. Is it any wonder why there are so many suicides within these programs?
Something has to change in the way we “treat” addiction in this country. [As Steven is pointing out]
Real people are dying every day, while greedy predators profit on the pain, bleeding and deaths of loved ones and family members. The addiction recovery industry and its 12 step offspring, make billions of dollars each year while death tolls continue to climb. In communities all across the nation, rehab facilities, sober living homes, safe houses and other [brain disease] addiction-related businesses and 12 step support programs are destroying neighborhoods, communities, families and lives.
Folks who truly want to recover from substance abuse and change the direction of their lives, need to stay as far away from people like DEP as possible. DEP is the typical, smarmy, “holier-than-thou” self-righteous asshole that you’ll encounter at any 12 step meeting. DEP should have a warning label tattooed on his/her forehead that reads: “HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH.”
PS to Atheistically Yours88 – Bravo Zulu my friend – Outstanding !!!!!!!
What comes to mind when reading John’s comments is that phrase ‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” Also, his comments have a definite “nanny-nanny-boo-boo” quality to them- which is why I thought he was a grade-school adolescent.
For example:
john says
June 7, 2017 at 8:38 PM
Either way whatever blows your skirt up fairy. Don’t forget to polish that bald head buddy.
LOL !!
John also writes that he’s curious as to where his thought processess, spelling and grammar are so atrocious that another guest on the site would have to comment on it.
Well ….
john says
June 7, 2017 at 8:38 PM
I’m sorry I said I was currently taking addiction psych when I’m currently in psych but seeing my final major it to have a masters in psychology focused on addiction psych pretty much I’m correct.
and…
john says
June 1, 2017 at 2:11 PM
“addiction IS a disease this article is the perfect example of the word fallacy! the way this talks well then nothing is a disease because the brain adjusts to everything! the brain changes to syphilis and can be changed back when its treated ”
WTF? ….. “the brain changes to syphilis” ??? Holy Crap… LOL
Sheesh, these comments from John are SO bastardized that I don’t know where to start. The point that Atheistically Yours88 was/is making is that a person with such a severe lack of critical thinking skills and such a demonstrable inability to cohesively write a single paragraph, wouldn’t be accepted to a university or college without first taking many high school level remedial classes to get up to speed. Or perhaps being allowed enrollment as a Government mandated quota “consolation prize” by claiming to have an SSA “disability.”
Where in that is there any grammar mistakes anywhere? Your obviously a 60 year old stubborn man who cant deal with change and always thinks hes right. Im sorry you lost your hair and your getting fat and the new generations are kicking your ass. Your old your dying just give up.
P. S. Your sun glasses dont make you look cool.
Oh one more thing i got a 3.75 gpa in my last critical thinking class. The fact im speaking my views and talking openly has nothing to do with my schooling skills.
Oh and I aced the acceptance and prerequisite tests so ya i dont take remedial courses im sorry you failed yours. Btw your writing is much worse than mine.
LOL — John, I can see that math is not your forte either. Is the methadone you’re taking screwing with your reading comprehension?
John says
June 8, 2017 at 9:49 AM
Where in that is there any grammar mistakes anywhere?
A person would first need to know what proper grammar is to find mistakes… LOL
how is math not my forte? The only thing math related I posted was my gpa in critical thinking which was a 3.75 so if 3.75 isn’t a number somehow please elaborate as to why you think so?? Do you just sling random accusations at people hoping it will bother them or what? You really are just a miserable old man aren’t you? Your kids and grand kids must be so ashamed of you being as cold and crabby as you are. Tell me if your grand kid got into drugs would you treat him/her like she was an idiot?
Wait I know where I made a mathematical error!!! When I said you were 60! Honestly I was trying to be nice nut ya you do look more like 75 or so….DOUCHEBAG!!
It seems to me that there is so much hatred, spite and scorn in these comments. It’s so vile and a total waste of time and emotion.
Is that what overcoming addiction brings? Is one truly recovered when the results of obtaining the “freedom” of un-addiction is replaced with vile hatred and one upmanship? We have got to learn to love one another and ourselves. This is totally central to beating addiction. It is paramount to any stab at being free. We all want the same thing at the end of the day and that is freedom. 10 minutes from our doorstep the London bridge attack occurred. A 10 minute walk. That could have been me, or my wife. That could have been friends of mine. It really puts things into perspective, yet here we are within the comments section of this blog verbally murdering one another.
Its the fact that as an addict the type of ppl on here that look fown on us and think oh he made that choice he could quit if he wanted to hes choosing to be a piece of shit. Thats why i get defensive. It started as me defending addiction and these ppl attack me personally so i sunk to their level
Irish my friend
Drug overdose death rates [***Death Rates***] continue to rise in a U.S. nationwide epidemic. This is proof enough that the disease model of addiction is not only wrong and useless but dangerous and DEADLY as well. I don’t subscribe to the Kumbaya approach to arrogant fake brain disease morons and their smarmy 12 step confederates. I’ve seen too many young people psychology destroyed by this bullshit and too many induced suicides because of it. So LOVE all you want to. I will continue to fight against this damaging destructive ideology [and the people who promote it] with every fiber of my being.
Brother you know you and I have the same view point on this. My post (which was not directed at you) is that this entire conversation has descended into loveless chaos, which is the very thing we are trying to escape from. That’s all.
You are not getting it. It does not matter if a person chooses to smoke, snort, inject, imbibe drugs or alcohol. Choice has nothing to do with any disease, it simply does not matter whether they choose or not. Addiction does not have to be a disease in EXACTLY the same manner as cancer, diabetes, or heart disease etc (though there are some choices involved in that as well, but not fully, which is a current misunderstanding of the GOP in their healthcare policy, “you didn’t take care of your body, you don’t get insurance” nonsense). Keep up your blindly obtuse obsession around the word choice, and you won’t get coverage for any “disease.”
A disease is a disorder of structure OR FUNCTION, with characteristic signs and symptoms, in its most simple definition. That fits addiction and a host of other medical and mental health diseases. For a better understanding of addiction as a disease, read the following: https://www.asam.org/quality-practice/definition-of-addiction.
The attack mode commenters on here need to check into some therapy. What would yo mamas say right now? Get some manners and grow up.
ASAM has ZERO CREDIBILITY, and is nothing but a bunch of ‘two-hatting” MD’s trying to call a BEHAVIOR a “disease” to justify their own pathetic short-comings! Read the book, “Addiction Is A Choice” by Dr. Jeffrey Schlater, and FOCUS CAREFULLY on the chapter on “ASAM”. That chapter alone is all that needs to be written about that second-rate, 12 Step “front” group!
Your line of thinking isn’t backed by data. You are saying that the high incidence of deaths due to overdose by the young are due to the disease model of addiction, psychology, the 12 steps and love. Where is your evidence? You say you have seen too many ruined by psychology. I say I have seen so many helped by psychology, and so many harmed by your approach to drug/alc use, ‘just say no.’ Where is the data? Maybe the higher incidence of drug overdoses are due to the decline in the lack of belief in God and spirituality, or the lower church attendance, or by the modern cynics of the world who spurn love for fucking, touchy feely relating to the impersonal, impartial technology and consumerism and a throwaway mentality, to the each man or woman for themselves, pick self up by bootstraps mentality, by continued burying of your past and your emotional states and your stress or an insecure obsession with a cool image and status, caused by ugly souls and an uncaring society with drug numbing, etc. You don’t have to fight anything. Choose the methods that work for you, and let others choose the methods that work for them. It really is that simple. Let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go.. Love and peace, smoocheroo, hug a tree, let the snowflakes fall , love is the answer, along with learning about our psyches and coping skills, using medicine to adjust brain chemistry, lightening up for life, get a sense of humor, multiple modalities and so on and so forth 🙂
Yes DEP… Can’t we all just get along and COEXSIST in loving, tolerant non-duality while we chase rainbows, butterflies, and unicorns in strawberry fields forever.
I don’t subscribe to the Kumbaya (DDD) approach to challenging the arrogant fake brain disease imbeciles and their egotistical, self-righteous, 12 step confederates. There is a limit to the bad behavior that a society can tolerate before it has to start lowering its standards. I’ve seen too many young people psychologically destroyed by this brain disease, 12 step dystopian bullshit and too many induced suicides because of it.
Too many ruined lives. Too many drug overdose deaths. Too many suicides. WHY?
Because of people like you who proselytize and promote a doctrine and culture that ALWAYS hammers away at vulnerable young addicts with endless tales of human misery, oppression, failure and disease and then inculcates them with a fantasy-land approach to solving their life problems using childish slogans and bubble-gum theosophy.
Years and years and years of browbeating, indoctrination and bullying that compels them to believe: => YOU ARE BROKEN AT YOUR CORE.
“You are broken at your core” is the essence of brain disease, 12 step ideology.
So LOVE and tolerate depravity all you want. Continue to preach to people that their addiction is not their fault- that THEY themselves are the real victims. I will continue to fight against this damaging destructive ideology [and the people who promote it] with every fiber of my being.
PS
Dep
Sharply contrasting “love” and “everything else” [as you do] in a childish appeal to non-duality does great damage to truth. There is no authentic love without truth, and yet the expectation of “love first” is that truth—as part of “everything else”—isn’t what moral people should lead with in their encounters with others- especially with addicts who are trying to change their lives for the better.
Rather, to “love first” -by your ideology – seems to mean that we give people no indication whatever that perhaps they are in harm’s way because of how they are choosing to live.
In this sense, “love” becomes impoverished by losing its foundation in truth. This kind of love is not, in fact, authentic love. Authentic love is inseparable from truth. Truth is reality. And no one can love truly if that love is not based on reality.
Papa (?), You still are not getting the 12 steps, addiction, mental illness, mental health, nor do you get love. My liberal snowflake commentary is tongue in cheek brevity, so lighten the f up, eh. Many addicts by the time they are addicted, are in fact, broken. It’s often why they use. There are some things in life that are beyond our ability and our control at the moment, those things need to be turned over, accepted, or self destruct. Try it, for example about this issue, which is beyond your control . The 12 steps and disease model will prevail despite your controlling resistance. Your attitude of “it’s all their own choice and fault” ignores the reality of physiology and psychology of emotions and behavior…. you reveal your ignorance. Just like there are some bad doctors out there, there can be some bad psychologists, mental health practitioners, and even AA groups out there. That doesn’t mean they are all bad. A person has to shop around. If the people you know were harmed, consider they met up with a poor practitioner or that there were other contributing factors. Yes, an addict chooses to put a drug in the body, and a person with lung cancer chooses to continue to smoke, and a diabetic to eat caramel rolls, and a person with heart disease chooses to still sit on the couch and eat french fries. The effects in their body is still, sorry Charlie, a disease which they have to treat, it affects their body and functioning with characteristic signs and symptoms (described by ASAM, which your closed mind didn’t register) = disease. “Just say no”, has not worked for many, many, many people due to the physiology of craving and relapse, mental illness, destroyed brain cells, and lack of skills. Your “it’s your fault” attitude increases their sense of shame and guilt, helplessness and hopelessness, leading many on a path to depression and suicide. So consider buttoning up your ignorant mouth, and leave it to the pros, and the experienced, who do know what they are talking about. Love does not make excuses nor does it not hold people accountable. Love embraces the strong and the weak, and those that continue to fall time and again, unconditionally, while it continues to offer constructive help in the way that each individual (not one size fits all) needs.
well said good sir. papa will never give up his beliefs though there’s no way he could handle reality after he thought he was right for so long so his mind will protect itself by ignoring any logic and just hold on to what he believes to be true. and all of us do have our own opinions but some feel the need to attack and try to discredit others to feel important somehow and papa is one of these people. hes old he doesn’t have long left on this earth so he thinks he’s smarter than everyone else even though age doesn’t necessarily mean experience. Or experience leading to correct thoughts and beliefs anyway.
Also, while a person may be broken, they can be healed, by getting and working the treatment of choice. That is personal responsibility. Some things may be out of their control, but not all things. The serenity prayer says grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. This means when they are given tools to maintain sobriety, they take the personal responsibility to use them. What they do not know how to change or fix now, they must let go of, and continue on anyway. When they fall or relapse, don’t give in to shame, guilt, remorse, helplessness, hopelessness, turn it over to their higher power, trust the process, take it a day or moment at a time, and keep on renewing efforts at learning and applying their skills–personal responsibility. If a person doesn’t believe in God, its always as you understand it, so if you believe in anything bigger than you, the universe, community of humanity, your pet rock, try using that. If that is still uncomfortable for some who have spiritual or ego problems, go ahead and try an alternative method, and if it works, great, no problem. But realize that others are more oriented and responsive to the model which you abhor, so let them.
people like papa are mistaking the saying powerless. when your using and first come to treatment you are pretty damn powerless but once your in recovery you gain your power back they don’t teach you that you stay powerless the rest of your life! but you will have urges and have to fight the rest of your life to say you don’t and your totally fine and normal is to set yourself up for a relapse. papa obviously is not or was not an addict because he has no clue.
John-please GROW UP, GET A FUCKING CLUE, and UNLEARN the “learned helplessness” that 12 Steppism TAUGHT YOU! Drugs are INANIMATE OBJECTS that DO NOT force their entry into ANY HUMAN BODY (unlike cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, or Parkinson’s!). There is ZERO “powerlessness” in a person: a.) acquiring a drug, b.) ingesting a drug, or c.) STOPPING “a” and “b”! This bullshit idea that a person somehow, “can’t stop” the use of a substance is DISPROVED by every person WHO STOPS THEIR USE, by going to jail, rehab, or just plain fucking quitting because they want to. Drugs have NO FUCKING POWER! They never have, they never will! The only “powerlessness” in ANY “addiction” is amongst those that WANT to see an addict quit (family, friends, the criminal justice system, etc.), and CANNOT FORCE THE ADDICT TO STOP! THEY are the ones who are “powerless”, NOT the drug investor.
DEP-The so-called “Serenity Prayer” is just another CRUTCH for 12 Steppers (and their enablers, like you are!) to CONTINUE TO AVOID PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY! Addicts create their OWN “lack of serenity” by CHOOSING to engage in, remain in, and perpetrate an addictive lifestyle! All the “praying” and “higher powering”
on this planet WILL. NOT. STOP. THAT! The idea that some “inanimate object” is a “power greater then onesself” (like the DRUG OF CHOICE is somehow!), is just more abdication of personal responsibility. An addicts addiction is because OF. THE. ADDICT! NOT the drug. NOT the source the drug is from. NOT the peers or family enabling the addiction to continue. Just the addict. Period! The sooner an addict wakes up to TAKING RESPONSIBILITY for their own addiction, that THEY SELF-ACQUIRED, then the sooner they can choose to grow up, and get the fuck out of it! It IS that simple. It IS that direct!
Atheist, you don’t know what you are talking about. You don’t get AA, you don’t get the 12 Steps, you don’t get addiction at all. You have no idea about craving, or relapse, you have no idea about genetic research which predisposes and makes some individuals able to quit easier than others, you have no idea of the power of some drugs that indeed will render even you powerless. You have no freaking idea. Yeah obviously you jail somebody and take away their access to drugs and they will “stop”…it doesn’t mean they are cured of their addiction, their addictive tendencies, their stinking addictive behavior or if they had access to drugs, that they wouldn’t use again The concept of powerlessness has nothing to do with whether a person can quit drugs or alcohol. Obviously many in AA including my uncle with 40 years of sobriety, who still believes in AA and the 12 steps as the ONLY thing that helped him, that you can achieve sobriety. Powerlessness has to do more with the way addicts think they can control their drinking, I’ll just drink beer, I’ll just drink on the weekend, I’ll just drink 1 or 2, etc . People don’t go to AA to keep using or avoid responsibility so they can keep using , eh, hello, they go their to achieve sobriety with a support group that gets it, unlike you. Do your freaking homework instead of making half-baked inferences based on partial observations.
What exactly IS there to “get” about the 12 Steps? Either they mean what they say, or they do not (which then proves their DISINGENUOUS FRAUD OF A “PROGRAM”!). The god-damned words were excreted out of the bullshit filled mind of Bill Wilson in 1938, and put into print in 1939. IN ENGLISH (so “mis-tranlating” is not a “defense” for them!). And even THEN, no reputable publisher would publish the CRAP that makes up AA’s “Big Book” (the first 164 pages of which have not changed ONE PATHETIC WORD, since 1939! So much for being a “credible” solution!).
As for having “no idea” about addiction, I probably no more about then you could ever hoped to. As someone born to alcoholic parents, and incurring wonderful birth defects that ONLY an alcoholic mother could give, I have know about addiction since BEFORE. I. WAS. BORN! I got to see BOTH my parents DIE at the age of 5 (one who stroked out as a result of an alcohol relapse, and the other who succumbed to cirrhosis of the liver-strange how THAT is on that parent’s death certificate, and NOT “alcoholism”!). The pathetic idiocy preached by 12 Steppism is as terroristic to alcoholics and addicts as the religion of Islam is to Western Civilization! You can “spin” the bullshit “powerlessness” concept all you want, it doesn’t make it anymore “valid” (Try replacing the word “alcohol” in Step 1 with “water”, and see if the past-tense, pluralized “thought”, works. NO. IT. DOESN’T!). People DO CONTROL what and HOW they put into their bodies (food, water, drugs, etc.). There is simply NO OTHER WAY that INANIMATE substance, whether they are required to stay alive, or required to escape reality, get into any human being otherwise. 12 Steppers can’t handle that logic. Its pathetic you don’t either. All the attempts to ‘splain” how addiction is somehow “involuntary” doesn’t hold water, pass the smell test, or make ANY SENSE, under ANY circumstance. Its time to grow up and face the truth. Addiction IS. A. CHOICE. It always has been, and always WILL BE! All the 12 Step endorsers screaming the lie for the next 100 years will not change that.
I am sorry about your upbringing and family. Addiction also runs in my family.
Your upbringing does not make you an expert on the pathophysiology of how drugs and alcohol work in the body. They are far different from food and water, vastly different. DO THE RESEARCH.
12 step programs have helped far more people recover from addiction than you can begin to fathom. They provide the foundation for world renowned drug and alcohol treatment programs. Does that mean that something else wouldn’t work? No it does not. Does it work for everybody? No it does not. But an alternative method or somebody not working their program does not invalidate a 12 step program. It has worked for a vast number of people. That makes it valid. Period. End of your argument. Simply because you don’t like it, and you don’t agree with it, does not make it invalid. Ego and reality check.
Once again, addiction as a disease has nothing to do with choice. I can choose to give myself other medical diseases with my actions, but that is not the point, and my choices do not invalidate those medical conditions as a disease process, affecting the body or function with characteristic signs and symptoms which addiction also has. Read the ASAM definition. Do your research. Some people become bullheaded and narrow in their thinking, and there is a pathology that also runs in families of addicts which you could also check into more. I’ve done my work and homework on that. I suggest you do more of your own. I am done wasting my breath, though I have valiently tried my best within my patience tolerance.
Addiction “runs in a family” about as much as CHILD ABUSE, and DOMESTIC VIOLENCE “runs in families”! It is, and remains, LEARNED BEHAVIOR! I am NOT an alcoholic, in spite of being the DNA photocopy of two people who were! The lie you perpetrate about “12 Step programs “helping” more people recover from addiction is BEYOND BULLSHIT! 1.) There is ZERO OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE proving this (no scientific studies-not even an ACCURATE CENSUS!), and 2.) HOW can a person be “recovered” from an addictive condition when the bullshit groups insist the “recovering” person still says they are “addicted” to the substance (that they have STOPPED USING!)? As for ASAM, read “Addiction Is A Choice” by Dr. Jeffrey Schaler. His chapter on the nonsense of “ASAM” is insightful enough, and shows that as an organization it has ZERO CREDIBILITY (Its nothing but a “12 Step FRONT GROUP, promoting 12 Steppism by “two-hatter” MD’s, etc. If your responses are an example of “patient tolerance”, then please do this planet a favor, and RELAPSE WHILE YOU STILL CAN! Your entries reflect a mindset that is brainless, shameless, and clueless! You are a pathetic advocate of 12 Steppism, which perpetuates as much of a “BIG LIE” about addiction being a “disease”, as the Nazi’s did about “Jews” being responsible for all Germany’s post-WW I problems. It is time to ABANDON that 1939 published “solution”, and get into the god-damned 21st Century already!
1. I didn’t say you were an addict. I said there is a pathology. This is a pathology in thinking and behaving. You demonstrate it with your writing…over and over and over again.
2. There is scientific data to prove that addictions do run in families. Do your research. My own experience….my grandfather was an alcoholic. His son and daughter became alcoholics, achieving sobriety hard won through AA. His other son, my own father, did not choose alcohol as his addiction. He used over-religiosity as his coping method, with narcissism as his pathology in thinking and behavior. Two of my brothers are alcoholics. Many family members suffer the sick treatment of their alcoholic parents and pass them along to their families. Scientifically documented.
3. The 12-steps do not become “fronts” for treatment programs. They use and modify them as a support group methodology in their treatment programming, highly effective, along with psychology techniques such as RET and CBT, etc, medical management, coping skills, etc.
4. I am sorry about your anger with your family that you are projecting onto AA and the 12 steps. Try some therapy to sort that out. And do more research….somebody disagreeing with ASAM does not make it invalid.
The “pathology” of the “addiction runs in families” thought is just that-the “pathological” belief that because older members of a family have an addiction, that somehow there is an “inheritance” of an addiction. BULLSHIT! Its all LEARNED BEHAVIOR! Show me the damned science that somehow “proves” this “runs in the family” MYTH already!
Since 12 Step groups have this “attraction over promotion” tradition (that they completely ignore!), they also “contract out” the PROMOTION of their nonsense philosophy via groups like: NCADD. ASAM, Al-Anon, Alan Clubs, and 90% of residential and IOP rehabs. in the USA alone! Find me a NON-12 Step program in this country, so I can evangelize as much as 12 Step adherents evangelize that organization’s pathetic philosophy!
My anger towards 12 Steppism and to its moronic adherents have ZERO to do with my family (living or dead!). I will always remain angry at a pathetic excused of a “mutual support group” that degrades individuals, makes them think their addiction is somehow NOT their fault, and mentally terrorizes them into maintaining an attendance at a group for an addiction that the individual DOES END, and KEEPS ENDED! I ate about as much respect for the MENTAL TERRORISM of 12 Steppism, as I do for the violence mandated by ISLAM! Both sources need to be ERADICATED OFF THIS PLANET! NOW!
As for research, try these sites: “morerevealed.com”, “orange-papers.org” (Archived), “rational.org”, “secular sobriety.org” and then there is this new one called, “cleanslate.org” There are also some interesting BOOKS that these sights have with ENDLESS primary source research: “More Revealed”, “The Small Book”, “Rational Recovery”, “”12 Steps To Dead”, “The Unbroken Brain” (just published!), “Resisting 12 Step Coercion” Google any one, and get them from AMAZON. I have read them all. The research of each of these authors puts my postings on here to shame.
In this informational piece about AA, toward the bottom is information about the effectiveness of AA, since you asked about the success of the program that hosts a couple of million members (if it didn’t work for those millions, would there be millions of members? Like anything, it won’t work unless you do. See the testimonial on the same page near the top. http://www.recovery.org/topics/alcoholics-anonymous-12-step/
IF anybody is terrorizing attendance, they should be reported because a valid AA group does not require attendance. Read the page thoroughly. My uncle voluntarily went multiple times a day in the worst of his addiction just to survive. Nobody forced him. He credits AA with saving his life.
Actually the disease model is thought to help more people than harm them, because historically people viewed addiction as a moral weakness, and they were discriminated against, keeping many in shame, self recrimination and continued use. A disease model provides definitions, descriptions of signs and symptoms, and treatment plans that if worked, will work to alleviate the symptoms (along with alleviating the nonhelpful recrimination). As in any disease process, you can be treated and cured or maintained at a stable level, but your risk factor remains for “relapse” or disease recurrence or worsening. There is a susceptibility that needs to be monitored with measures taken to prevent recurrence or worsening. In many diseases. It’s okay for addiction to be a disease. It really is. Shifting your paradyme or how you think about it can be immensely helpful. If it helps you to not call it a disease and you can manage your addiction fine without it, more power to you (not you personally).
Google yourself on the genetics of addiction in families along with other family dysfunctional behavior unique to addicted families. The data is out there along with millions of personal testimonials. I will not do all your work for you.
Just because a person creates a web site claiming addiction is not a disease does not make them right even if that suits your bias.
By the way, my one brother, the alcoholic, resisted AA and 12 steps also, same “crap and BS” mentality…he is failing… Many of my siblings who are not addicts, (not all get it, just like not all siblings inherit DNA for other diseases that run in families), suffered the abuse of affected alcoholics or children of alcoholics, and have had their own emotional behavioral processes to sort out. Very common. Don’t feel bad. Many of us have been there. I am not addicted myself, but I found the 12-step base treatment programming very helpful for resolving the mistreatment I received. It can be a long road, but well worth it. Keep an open mind. It won’t bite you. Nothing to lose…
The whole “Keep an Open Mind” mentality, is what gave “Orange” from the site “orange-papers.org” (now archived) his motivation to research what he wound up producing, and putting on the Internet. His primary source research is TOP NOTCH (and from 12 Step sources no less!). As for your alcoholic brother, he just doesn’t want to stop. I guarantee he will NEVER STOP as long as he attempts to quit using the 12 Step philosophy. His addiction has NOTHING TO DO with the “spiritual malady” that 12 Steppism claims (if that had any validity, why isn’t every atheist or agnostic I met for the past 30 years an alcoholic, or addict?).
wow you are retareded he said his brother refuses aa and thinks of it like you do you dumb ass. god your a real winner aren’t ya?
Keeping an open mind prevents us from becoming tunnel visioned and narcissistic. You and I don’t know everything and never will, but if we erroneously think we do, and close our minds, we will stay stuck, and there will be no progress. Any innovation and scientific discovery made in society was made by somebody who kept their mind open.
DId you fail to read the success stories of my relatives and the hundreds of thousands of persons who have gone through the AA and the 12 steps or 12-step treatment based programs successfully? Yet you persist in saying anybody who follows this will fail. WRONG! It is ridiculous to persist in this line of thinking.
Not wanting to stop despite harmful consequences is a pathology of thinking and behaving and brain functioning. Do you know about mental illnesses, brain diseases, which is often treated by medications because it is a disease, an imbalance of chemistry or change in structure and function? Do you know that drugs and alcohol affect the pathophysiology of the brain, destroying cells and connections within the brain, affecting the reward system which drives compulsive craving and use? When that happens, do you think it logical that there will be pathology in thinking and behaving? Of course it does. RESEARCH….
Since AA has ZERO objective sources that can attest to its “count”, there is NO PROOF (aside from its cult-like adherents!) who claim that it has somehow “helped millions”. Just because its been around for a long time, doesn’t mean that everyone (or even ANYONE!) that has gone to it, has been “irreverseably” helped (or did AA start conducting a once-a-decade CENSUS, as the federal government does?). WHERE is the OBJECTIVE PROOF OF AA EVER BEING SUCCESSFUL?
Not wanting to stop a substance reflects a CHOICE to continue to use. There is NO. SUCH. THING. as “addictive personality” (ANOTHER made-up 12 Step concept!), nor is ANY addictive disorder a “sub-category” of “OCD” (WHY NOT?). People that have to willingly, knowingly and VOLUNTARILY engage arms, legs, hands and feet in the acquisition and ingestion of ANY SUBSTANCE are choosing to do so. Just because a brain “fiends” for something does NOT MEAN the substance MUST be acquired or ingested (for which hands and feet, and arms and legs are required!). Those who claim that there is some “pathology” here, are just making an excuse for the person that WILL. NOT. STOP! (And then don’t forget about those WHO. DO. STOP! The fact that they CAN AND DO, PROVES that addiction is, has been, and always WILL BE, a damned CHOICE!).
AA likes to toot its own horn, because it is only interested in its OWN success (the “success” of the individual BE DAMNED! The “steps” say as much!). If everyone was successful after going to AA meetings, they would be able to LEAVE THE GROUP FOR GOOD, and AA would not have ANY “competition”. Its methods would have been SCIENTIFICALLY VERIFIED AND PROVED by now! It has not been. It will never be. Anymore then the “existence” of a “deity” will be. Faith-based groups CANNOT handle PROOF. If they could, there would be ZERO NEED FOR “FAITH”.
As for research, there are sources that are clearly more scholarly then I who have created web-sites, written books, made documentary films, and have social media pages devoted to the FRAUD that 12 Steppism is, and remains to be. I own copies of those books, and have talked personally to several of the website web masters. I have also BEEN TO countless 12 Step meetings (they are overly, repeatedly, redundantly, REDUNDANTLY, REDUNDANT!). I have “researched” enough. And the evidence is overwhelming AGAINST the fraud that 12 Steppism is, and remains. It is a scourge that needs to be ERADICATED OFF THIS PLANET, just as Islam (and all other religion!) does! If AAers had the “open mind” they claim is needed to “investigate” the 12 Steps, then people would RUN AWAY from 12 Steppism screaming! I for one, will help direct these mostly coerced people into other alternatives. If someone wants to waste their day in 12 Step groups, that is their choice. But if they are coerced to go to one, or told that it is a “solution” that “works”, I will join the ranks of the detractors, and point the way out, both on and off the Internet!
wow now I get it your an atheist (or scientologist) so you hate AA because you think it has to do with religion! you sir are a complete moron! it says god as we understood him. that means however you perceive a higher power in your own beliefs. and if you believe in nothing well good for you your gonna be miserable your whole life and I can tell that you are very miserable. I said before I don’t do the steps but I know tons of sober addicts that if not for aa they would be lost.
“Understood” is a PAST-TENSE phrased word, you deity-believing MORON! The word “high power” (nor lower power, nor medium-rare power!) is NOT. EVEN. MENTIONED in the 12 Steps (again-do those words mean what they say, and say what they mean?). As for addicts “doing the steps”, they have traded a substance addiction for the pathetic mental co-dependancy of some other source (12 Step group or sponsor!) running their life, because they don’t have the mental wherewith all, or the spinal fortitude to run their own. Everyone of them (and YOU ESPECIALLY!), should have a tattoo on their foreheads that states, “DO NOT REPRODUCE!” Unfortunately, too many of them have, and their pathetic DNA is carried forth into another generation!
Let me just say once again, you don’t know what you are talking about and are basically full of shit. The data is out there. If you choose to put your blinders and and continue with your delusional, distorted thinking, there is nothing more to say to you. The rest of the millions of people you deny who are getting help for free with their disease of addiction, will continue to get the help they need, and that’s what really matters. Have a nice life.
WHO TIES YOUR SHOES FOR YOU? Clearly you a myopic 12 Stepper that doesn’t have the brains, nor the sober-fortitude to see what this site has (backed by research no less!), and through every source that I have read, have the actual books of, and then there is the experience of WORKING in this field for the last 14.5 years! You are nothing more then a pathetic waste of oxygen consumption, co-dependent on 12 Steppism’s abdication of responsibility, and delusional belief that there is some “brain disease” that addicts somehow “catch” through an outside source! Clearly you need a good relapse onto a substance, because your responses make NO. SENSE. SOBER!
WOW!!! I cant fucking believe you! did you seriously just tell him he needs to relapse? I thought we just disagreed but after what you’ve said to me and now this its clear you just hate addicts and you want us to overdose. Only a complete piece of crap tells an addict in recovery to go relapse!Just reading that can be enough of a trigger maybe you don’t realize that. I’m seriously completely and utterly disgusted in you and you should be really fuckin ashamed of yourself how dare you say that??? Go say some hail marys and hope like crazy you don’t go to hell you no good bastard. DEP started out just stating his opinion nicely and you immediately attacked him so he finally snaps back at you and you pretty much say go kill yourself!! you are one sad sad excuse for a human being and you must have no sympathy whatsoever you narcissistic bastard. Good day and goodbye!
You need to RELAPSE AS WELL! For you, it would be a step up! When you are on your next “bender” or “run”, please get a tattoo ON YOUR FOREHEAD that states, “DO NOT REPRODUCE!”
this will probably be my last post here as I think I’m just wasting my time. first like I said 20 times I do not believe in the 12 steps! so quit calling me a 12 stepper. have they helped people ya a few but considering the hold drugs have its impressive. do they mean well and are they doing much more than you or me yes most certainly!! you have what you believe ingrained so deep in your head youll never change you opinions. we’ve been punishing people for drugs for 100 years we need to try something new. I say we do like Portugal and legalize everything. well its not exactly legal but theres not criminal charges for any drug. their drug use AND their overdose deaths have gone down like 50 percent!! the people that are going to use are going to use and the ones that aren’t wont just because its legal. I know I’m opening a can of worms here but the data doesn’t lie and Portugal’s drug problem is so much better since they changed the laws. I’m not sure what drug deling gets you but using any drug is decriminalized and its working great. Doesn’t mean it will work for sure but I say its worth the risk.
Enjoy your RELAPSE! Make sure it leads to a LETHAL OVERDOSE, so you can FINALLY BE SUCCESSFUL AT SOMETHING! Your posts prove what a pathetic waste of oxygen consumption you are, and a COMPLETE, IRREVERSEABLE FAILURE YOU REMAIN IN BEING SOBER (assuming you are!).
Atheistically Yours88
Well done, my friend. Like you, I remain dedicated to and emboldened by the following guarantee: for every ‘one’ person [addict or not] that people like DEP poison and enslave with fake brain disease, 12 step deceptive chicanery, I will liberate twenty others with the ‘TRUTH.’
The TRUTH is infinitely more powerful than DEP’s self-aggrandizing [and I suspect] self-enriching diatribes of deceit—wherever he/she spews them.
Action and example, as well as logic, serve as great persuaders of truth and authenticity. The ‘meetings before the meeting and after the meeting’ are the perfect opportunities to teach.
The court ordered and EAP mandated folks are the easiest. Most of them are only attending for the duration of their sentence anyway and they quickly witness and identify the shallow, half-baked bullshit for what it is.
The people car-pooled in from the treatment centers are a bit more challenging because they are indoctrinated with the brain disease, 12 step insanity 24/7 and are coerced and bullied into chanting it endlessly under the threat and penalty of being discharged for non-compliance.
AY88, I admire your strength and passion. Keep up the great work !!!
P.S. To little Johnnie- You say you are a 50 year old man but you sound, think and write like an foolish little school girl who’s just entering puberty
And …. Here’s a smidgen of irony: [and NO John, that doesn’t mean trying to get wrinkles out of your clothes-LOL]
“There are zillions of people who say that alcoholism is a disease, but not many of them believe it.”
– Mercedes McCambridge
And ……In a reply Bill Wilson gave when specifically asked about alcoholism as disease after he had addressed the annual meeting of the National Catholic Clergy Conference on Alcoholism in 1961 he said:
“We have never called alcoholism a disease because, technically speaking, it is not a disease.”
I never said I was 50… I’m 31 and thank god I dread getting old and I hope like hell I don’t look like you when I do. who the fuck is Mercedes mccambridge and bill Wilson and do you really think the opinion of 2 people matter? we could go on all day posting quotes of professionals fighting over addiction being a disease. DOESNT MATTER IS ITS NOT A DISEASE! people need help and id like to see any type of treatment that saves as many addicts as aa/na. like I said I don’t like the 12 steps I have my own way but you cant deny they have saved thousands. wait ya I’m sure you will deny it you hard headed fuck. have a good life the whole 5 years you have left baldie. nothing but a bully.
meant to say doesn’t matter IF its not a disease
John, ignore these 2 clowns. I think legalization of drugs is also worth trying. See this article. http://theinfluence.org/these-four-countries-prove-that-decriminalization-works-better-than-prohibition/ Bill Wilson, founder of AA, was not a physician. But the physicians that treated him (Dr. William Silkworth) was and the disease model developed with continued scientific research confirming the model. AA organizations will often say, that atheists may not be comfortable with their approach if they cannot understand that AA doesn’t have to include God, rather the concept that some things are beyond our control and need to be acknowledged as such and turned over to a higher order of the universe for the timebeing. AA is fine with that. Nothing can work if a person doesn’t buy into it. If a person doesn’t believe in a treatment plan, and doesn’t follow it, of course it isn’t going to work (Jehovah Witnesses refusing blood transfusions, other religious orders leaving their care to prayers to God, or simply somebody thinking doctors are quacks and refusing medical advice, etc.). AA is a great support group for millions, and its free, making it accessible to all regardless of income. Some achieve sobriety through AA only. However, many need more, particularly those with mental health issues, but even those without them. Addiction treatment programs in outpatient or inpatient often do not rely solely on AA, using a combination of methods along with it, including psychology therapy for life problems as well as alternative thinking methods, educational methods to learn about the disease of addiction, teaching alternative and better coping methods than alc/drugs, medical management including some medications that help alleviate cravings (depending on the drug and the nature of a person’s addiction). Good luck in your studies and recovery. You have important help to offer others.
DEP-Please cite these “studies” and this “research” that claim: a.) what a “disease” is proved to be (government agencies notwithstanding!), and b.) how “addiction” meets that “disease” criteria! Idiots from Dr. Silkworth (and his idiotic “allergy” hypothesis!), forward screaming this “addiction-is-a-disease” fallacy for the last 80+ years DO. NOT. MAKE. IT. SO! A bunch of yo-yo’s called Nazi’s ran all over Germany in the 20’s and 30’s screaming that “Jews are bad”, and that did not make it so! Just because something has been around for a long period of time, and bunch of people “believe” in it DOES NOT PROVE that something works, or even “exists” (in the case of there allegedly being a “deity”!). As for AA being a “great support group for millions”, there is NO OBJECTIVE PROOF that it has helped millions, thousands, hundreds, or even dozens! If the coercive attendees were removed from the average 12 Step group, they would ALL DIE OFF by the end of this decade (we should be so lucky!). Idiots that are postulating that “12 Step groups are the “only” thing that “work” are either too biased to admit there are alternatives, or too stupid to try them. AMRT Recovery, Secular Organizations for Sobriety, Moderation Management, Rational Recovery, Men/Women For Sobriety, Medication Assisted Therapy, CBT, RET, and this “Sinclair Method” are all LOGICAL ALTERNATIVES to the 12 Step nonsense of abdicating one’s responsibility for one’s own voluntarily achieved and maintained addiction, and claiming that a “spiritual entity” belief is required to stop one! 12 Step groups are as mentally terroristic as Islam is VIOLENTLY terroristic, and BOTH sources need eradication off, not “accommodation” on, this planet. GROW UP, and wake up to the alternatives. No “higher power” gets a person INTO an addiction and no “higher power” will get a person out of one. It is THAT simple. It is THAT direct.
Do your own research. Google it. Call up the medical directors at Hazelden Betty Ford and ask them. I am not wasting my breath. You are either grossly uninformed or sick if you compare AA to Islamic terrorism or Nazis. My uncle the AA fan is biased. So are you . I am not. Throughout these threads if you bothered to read or comprehend, I say choose the method that works for YOU because yes, just like we all have unique fingerprints, we all have unique body chemistries, unique health characteristics and conditions, unique social backgrounds, unique life experiences, unique ways of comprehending and learning….ta da, unique just like a Snowflake….did I hear somebody mention snowflakes?
Treatment plans are individualized. If you gonna be biased and turn down AA, it’s no skin off anybody’s ass eh. If the AA person who achieved 40 years of sobriety didn’t need what he considers psychobabble or the other secular cognitive-only methodology, more power to him. You still don’t get higher powers, its not about God waving a magic wand, eh and making things all right. Its more like laying your burden down somewhere because you can’t handle it…its ta da bigger than you are right now. This methodology is also found in psychology if it makes you feel better okay? Just leave out the words higher power if you want, nobody cares. But if somebody wants to say God, Jesus, the Holy spirit inspired them by Jesus’s own life struggles (learn to think in parables or abstraction rather than concrete literalism), falling and picking up their burdens again, so be it. Let them. Your not letting them, following your own line of thinking then makes you a Nazi or a terrorist. I know lots of people who avoid your logical approaches as a bunch of crack shrinks. Hard to believe right? Study up on egocentrism.
Atheistically Yours88
DEP says
June 12, 2017 at 5:46 AM
“Do your own research. … Call up the medical directors at Hazelden Betty Ford and ask them.”
___________________________
‘CHECKMATE’!!
DEP is suggesting [demanding] in his/her typical smarmy, holier-than-thou fashion that you call the fox and ask him how guarding the henhouse is going and then being gullible enough to believe the FOX when he tells you that all the chickens are ok. LOL
This is from the Hazelden Website:
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JULY 24, 2016 | BY: Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation
“Hazelden addiction treatment has centered around AA’s 12-steps program of abstinence.
Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
The set of guiding principles which outline a course of action for tackling problems including alcoholism, drug addiction and compulsion.
Pricing / Costs
Average Cost: $28,000- 32,000 for 30-day treatment – [that’s $1100 per day]
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I have a sneaking suspicion that this ‘GOLDEN GOOSE’ connection [rather than sincerity] might have something to do with DEP’s disingenuous but adamant insistence that people BELIEVE in the efficacy and effectiveness of fake brain disease, 12 step treatment.
I believe DEP KNOWS brain disease, 12 stepism is bullshit but can’t ADMIT it because he/she has some sort of financial link to it. [Just a guess]
Find the following on YouTube:
**THE BUSINESS OF RECOVERY — Official Trailer** [Hazelden is one of the WORST]
“As drug and alcohol addictions skyrocket, The Business of Recovery examines the untold billions that are being made off of families in crisis. With little regulation or science, the addiction treatment industry has become a cash cow business that continues to grow while the addiction death rates continue to rise.
Through unique access to internationally recognized treatment facilities, as well as emotional stories of addicts and their families, the film reveals how the treatment industry in the United States preys on addicts with little more than promises of hope and a huge bill.
The film challenges us to reconsider our assumptions about treating addiction and the human cost we will pay by allowing the industry to continue business as usual.”
_______________________________________________
***The Truth About the Rehab Industry and 12-Step Programs***
Dr. Lance Dodes, retired professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, debunks the bad science behind “rehab” and 12-step programs, which have miserable success rates.
_____________________________________________________
The RESEARCH HAS BEEN DONE! It is You that needs to find it, not I! I have cited multiple sources, and the best you can come up with are the “directors” of pro-12 Step, “disease”-advocating rehabs?
PA-FUCKING-THETIC!
John
I stand corrected. You are a 31 year old, insignificant, delicate snowflake who has never grown up and who refuses to take responsibility for his own actions and poor choices. You sound, think, reason and write like a spoiled, whiny, little school girl who’s just entered puberty.
This comment [question] from you attests to your utter ignorance and stupidity.
————————————-
John says
June 11, 2017 at 9:25 AM
“who the fuck is Mercedes mccambridge and bill Wilson and do you really think the opinion of 2 people matter?”
—————————————————-
Since you are so in love with your fake brain disease, let me suggest to other disorders that you might want to adopt as additional teddy bear, security blankets that you can cling to at night.
Special Snowflake Syndrome and Munchausen Syndrome.
1) The conviction that one is, in some way, special and should therefore be treated differently from others.
AND
2) A mental disorder in which a person repeatedly and deliberately acts as if he or she has a physical or mental illness when he or she is not really sick.
Papamick, you are full of shit. Get an education. Karma bites, we’ll leave you to it.
Atheistically Yours88
DEP SAYS: “Do your own research. Google it”
________________________________
***Inside The $35 Billion Addiction Treatment Industry*** Forbes
“The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency estimates that over 23 million Americans (age 12 and older) are addicted to alcohol and other drugs. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), just under 11% (2.5 million) received care at an addiction treatment facility in 2012. SAMHSA also estimates that the market for addiction treatment is about $35 billion per year.
The vast majority of addiction treatment is based either partially or entirely on the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), but is there scientific evidence to support AA as a clinical treatment? Should addiction treatment centers make enormous profits by simply funneling substance abusers into the free fellowship of AA?”
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Read more from the Forbes Article:
“I became the Director of the Alcoholism Treatment Unit at Harvard’s McLean Hospital. I’ve probably treated a couple of thousand people who have one addiction or another. Almost all residential treatment programs in the United States are 12 Step based, so their effectiveness will depend entirely on whether 12 Step programs work and the statistics for AA are not good. It is helpful for 5‒10% and that’s a good thing. That’s 5‒10% of people who are being helped by A.A. ‒ it’s a lot better than zero percent ‒ but it shouldn’t be thought of as the standard of treatment because it fails for most people ‒ for the vast majority of people. ”
Lance Dodes, MD ‒ Addiction Expert & Author ‒ Harvard Medical School Graduate in The Business of Recovery
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“12 Step programs are very popular, but if you’re looking for figures and randomized trials and scientifically rigorous studies of how they work and for how many people they work ‒ you will not find those studies. You will find anecdotal evidence ‒ for people that it did work [for] ‒ but unfortunately we don’t have the scientific basis to say how many of all those people that tried a 12 Step program ‒ how many of those did not succeed.”
Ruben Baler ‒ Health Scientist, National Institute on Drug Abuse
_________________________________
This last one is the most troubling since addiction is often couched in clinical terms like “disease” and “treatment.” The AMA first defined alcoholism as an illness (1956) and then a disease (1966), but there’s little scientific evidence to support a disease diagnosis. That also makes it challenging to categorize any program based on the 12 Steps of AA as clinical treatment ‒ even if there is a billing code.
“AA is not really a treatment ‒ it’s a fellowship. If you go to your doctor to be treated for cancer or heart disease you expect your doctor to be doing what the science says is the best treatment available for what you have. That has not been the standard in addiction treatment.”
William R. Miller, PhD ‒ Emeritus Distinguished Professor University of New Mexico
_______________________________________________
“There is no mandatory national certification exam for addiction counselors. The 2012 Columbia University report on addiction medicine found that only six states required alcohol and substance-abuse counselors to have at least a bachelor’s degree and that only one state, Vermont, required a master’s degree. Fourteen states had no license requirements whatsoever ‒ not even a GED or an introductory training course was necessary ‒ and yet counselors are often called on by the judicial system and medical boards to give expert opinions on their clients’ prospects for recovery.”
Gabrielle Glaser – The atlantic
________________________________________
“So we developed this history of providers being people who are themselves in recovery ‒ originally with no educational requirement at all. In New Mexico, we now have a Bachelors degree required to be a substance abuse counselor and it was quite controversial to do that. I don’t know of any other life‒threatening illness where it’s controversial if you should have a college education to treat it, but it has been in the addiction field.”
William R. Miller, PhD ‒ Emeritus Distinguished Professor University of New Mexico
____________________________________
“The real issue then is a $35 billion a year industry that’s largely based on funneling substance abusers into the fellowship of AA ‒ or simply providing large doses of AA meetings themselves.
To be sure, there’s a lot of hand‒waving, glitzy marketing and pseudo‒science to justify the enormous cost associated with treatment plans, but little proof of scientific efficacy. Court mandated attendance isn’t profitable, of course, but it does legitimize the process of funneling people into A.A. in ways that also benefits the industry at large.
As highlighted through several tragic stories in the documentary [The Business of Recovery], family members are naturally eager to spend whatever money they have ‒ and often money they don’t have ‒ in desperate attempts to save loved ones from the harsh realities of substance abuse and addiction.
Preying on this strong desire is the very real and profitable business of recovery ‒ and one that the documentary exposes with clear‒eyed and sober detail. I do hope the film finds a way to a larger public audience. There’s still so much we don’t know about substance abuse and addiction ‒ except ‒ at least according to one compelling film ‒ how to turn it into a very lucrative business.”
Thank you PAPA! I have Dr. Doddes’s book (and his first one, “The Heart of Addiction”!). I have yet to see the documentary, “The Business of Recovery” though. I doubt it will tell me something I don’t already know. There are indeed too many charlatans mining a GOLD MINE of “recovery” by offering “12 Steppism” as a “solution”. The continuing failures of addicts with 12 Steppism GURANTEE the addict returns to the meetings, and returns to the rehabs! PA-FUCKING-THETIC! You would think HMO’s would be on to this scam by now, and decline to pay for any further “treatment” within it. They would SAVE MILLIONS!
From Truth-out.org
Whether a loved one is hooked on alcohol, barbiturates, heroin or crystal meth, the film [The Business of Recovery] presents addiction “specialists” as marketing a one-size-fits-all solution: the idea that 30, 60 or even 100 days away, coupled with attending 12-step meetings morning, noon and night, is all that is needed to cure their addicted friend or family member. Of course, some people do get and stay clean after attending an in-patient program, but as the many medical experts and researchers interviewed in The Business of Recovery attest, the vast majority – upward of 90 percent – do not, relapsing at some point in their sobriety.
Dr. Lance Dodes, author of The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry and a professor at Harvard Medical School, argues that many of the foundational ideas about ending substance abuse are wrong. Take the notion of addiction as disease.
“The disease idea used to be useful to destigmatize addiction,” he says in the film. “It can help people feel better about themselves, but as a scientific idea, it has little merit … Addiction is a compulsion, a feeling of being trapped or helpless,” and unless those underlying feelings are addressed , relapse, he says, is more likely than not.
University of New Mexico Professor Emeritus William R. Miller, Ph.D., agrees with Dodes, adding that where the prevailing wisdom once dictated that there was nothing to do until the addict hit bottom; this too, has been proven false. “You can help people increase their readiness to change,” he says, “by finding in them that which wants to change.” [choice]
“Attending AA was never supposed to be forced,” he says, “but now courts and the legal system mandate AA treatment. It should never be mandated; study after study, says Dodes, has shown that recovery works best when it is entered voluntarily. [by CHOICE !!! ]
Nonetheless, high-end treatment programs including the Betty Ford Center, the Hazelden Foundation, One80 and New Directions for Women are strict adherents of the AA model. In addition, the $34 billion – yes, that’s billion with a B – industry has taken AA, which anyone can attend without charge in their home communities, and incorporated meetings into fantastically beautiful settings that look more like elite spas for the ultra-rich than medical treatment centers. And it has paid off – handsomely. For example, 30 days in Betty Ford costs $53,000. Shockingly, according to the film, this is not an anomaly. Most in-patient rehab centers, we’re told, charge between $25,000 and $44,000 a month.
The film reports that the CEO of Betty Ford earns $558,950 a year; the CEO of Hazelden, $746,277; and the CEO of High Watch in Connecticut, $336,812.
They’re not the only ones cashing in.
The Business of Recovery also highlights the existence of more than 60,000 12step sober living houses located throughout the country. Michael Colasurdo, a 23-year-old man who was addicted to heroin and died of an overdose three months after being interviewed, was placed in a 12step sober house early in his presumed recovery. He described the facility as a joke, blaming a lack of supervision. His death is tragic. But while offering better supervision and on-site counseling sounds rational, it is not clear what measures could actually be taken to prevent residents of 12step sober living houses from using.
I don’t wish anybody harm- especially not overdose or death. I wish only that addicts and their families seek science based, alternative assistance with their substance use problems and that they avoid brain disease, 12 step treatment and groups.
The (12 step) Disease Model of addiction doesn’t Work— It Does More Harm than good…It sets people up for failure. ..It makes matters worse than they are…It stigmatizes people for life. ..It brutalizes and brainwashes the young. ..It presents the alcoholic or addict as someone to emulate.
It ignores the rest of the person’s problems in favor of blaming them all on the addiction…It traps people in a world inhabited by fellow ‘disease-sufferers’.
So, what lies behind the claim that alcoholism and other addictions are diseases? How accurate is it? What evidence supports it? Most importantly, what good does it do us to believe it? Will it really help you or someone you care about to overcome an addiction?
The answer is no!
What’s wrong with calling a tenacious and destructive habit a disease?
Three things:
It isn’t true.
It doesn’t help most people (and even those it does help might succeed just as well in some less costly, less limiting way).
It prevents us from doing things that really would help.
There is no good reason to label yourself or people you know as forever marked by an addictive “disease.” Challenging this useless folklore is the first step toward understanding addiction and doing something effective about it.
papamick, once again, you are full of shit. Treatment cost too much for you? Do your own research on techniques of disease model treatment and do it yourself for free. The treatment centers mentioned also offer free care if you can’t afford it. Shut your flap about what you don’t know anything about . I have been bullied by the masters of emotional abuse, I’ve seen it all. You are cow fodder in comparison. Back off. I am female 53, I don’t take shit from anybody and fully confident in my research, education and experience.
So, “Miss Master of Research”, where ARE your sources that PROVE this “addiction is a disease”? If there truly IS any PROOF of this pathetically REPEATED FALLACY, how come it has not been PROVED, ACCEPTED, and the person who did it, collecting a NOBEL PRIZE in Medicine?
I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you are incapable of doing your own research, rather than simple laziness or prick baiting, and point you here as a starting point. Please note starting point, a launch pad for you, so to speak, click the links in it, and then google other disease model proponents some more. And then I am done with this page. It will become spam, because I have said everything I need to say and have better things to do with my time now. Lead a horse to water, cannot make him drink. In the end we believe what we want to believe. Different strokes for different folks and that’s a good thing, really.
http://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/articles/research/brain-disease-model
A pathetic, self-serving “Research Update” that DOES. NOT. EVEN. MENTION. a DEFINITION OF “disease”! Did you really think that one of the most expensive rehabs. in the country would perpetuate a different result? I have seen middle school science projects with more convincing research! This pathetic waste of print does not even ADDRESS the VOLUNTARY ACQUISITION OR INGESTION of a substance, and how THAT can be CONTROLLED, MODERATED, INCREASED, OR EVEN STOPPED! Try reading “The Biology of Desire-Why Addiction IS A CHOICE” (by Dr. Lance Doddes), or “The Unbroken Brain” by Maila Szalavitz if you want to see ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC CHOICE! Only a self-centered Hazleden facility (which INVENTED the god-damned “disease” model in the 40’s!), would perpetuate this crap! They need to be SUED OUT OF EXISTENCE for the perpetuation of this crap!
Atheistically Yours88
DEP has proven, repeatedly, that she is either BLINDED by some sort of severe EMOTIONAL imbalance or that she is an insincere hypocrite of the worst order. My guess is that she has some sort of financial interest in the $35 billion a year industry and feels fearfully compelled to keep the Golden Goose alive. So it is actually D E P who is, as she puts it: “once again…. full of shit.” LOL
If DEP would pull her head out of her ass for even 30 seconds, she might get a glimpse of SUNSHINE.
RE: My Research and Sources
“Diseasing of America”
by Stanton Peele
With 22 pages of end notes pointing to additional research sources
A popular book explaining the movement in America toward disease theories of behaviors and their negative consequences for law, morality, and social and individual health. Widely reviewed, largely positively, including JAMA, Health Affairs, American Health, Psychology Today, Psychiatric News, and JSA.
“Commonly accepted ideas about alcoholism and other addictions are almost entirely without scientific basis. We have more than enough diseases without inventing new ones to relieve us of moral responsibility to deal with the complexity of the human condition. Diseasing of America is an important book that should be read by all concerned about addiction. An added bonus—Dr. Peele writes exceptionally well.
—Neil A. Kurtzman, M.D., Arnett Professor of Medicine, and Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
“A courageous indictment of the destructive mindset that all deviant behavior is a disease. Peele offers mindful alternatives to those suffering from addictions and to professionals seeking to help them.”
—Ellen Langer, Ph.D., professor of psychology, Harvard University, and author of Mindfulness
“Alcoholics Anonymous Cult or Cure?” by Charles Bufe
With 8 pages of end notes pointing to additional research sources
This well researched, painstakingly documented book provides detailed information on the evangelical organization (Oxford Group Movement) that gave birth to AA; the relation of AA and its program to the Oxford Group Movement; AA’s similarities to and differences from religious cults; AA’s remarkable ineffectiveness; and the alternatives to AA. The greatly expanded second edition
“More Revealed”
by Ken Ragge
With 9 pages of end notes pointing to additional research sources
In “More Revealed” 12 step support groups are exposed as indoctrination meetings. They are used to convince millions, when they are at their most vulnerable due to personal crises, that the 12 steps are God’s latest revelation, above and beyond Christianity and other religions. In absolute sincerity about their SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE of God, members put the groups above scientific scrutiny, intellectual analysis and the Constitution.
Learn how families are torn apart and indoctrinees are PUSHED to suicide. Learn how the public has been misled into becoming unwitting accomplices. Learn how we are bilked out of billions of tax dollars at every level of government to finance the ‘education’ in a new religion.
“The Real AA”
by Ken Ragge
With 9 pages of end notes
The Real AA will be a shock to many people because it reveals facts they would rather not know. But the shock I have no doubt will be a healthy one” Alice Miller
“The Sober Truth”
by Dr. Lance Dodes
With 10 pages of end notes pointing to additional research sources.
An exposé of Alcoholics Anonymous, 12-step programs, and the rehab industry—and how a failed addiction-treatment model came to dominate America.
AA has become so infused in our society that it is practically synonymous with addiction recovery. Yet the evidence shows that AA has only a 5–10 percent success rate—hardly better than no treatment at all. Despite this, doctors, employers, and judges regularly refer addicted people to treatment programs and rehab facilities based on the 12-step model.
In The Sober Truth, acclaimed addiction specialist Dr. Lance Dodes exposes the deeply flawed science that the 12-step industry has used to support its programs. Dr. Dodes analyzes dozens of studies to reveal a startling pattern of errors, misjudgments, and biases. He also pores over the research to highlight the best peer-reviewed studies available and discovers that they reach a grim consensus on the program’s overall success.
The Sober Truth builds a powerful response to the monopoly of the 12-step program and explodes the myth that these programs offer an acceptable or universal solution to the deeply personal problem of addiction. This book offers new and actionable information for addicts, their families, and medical providers, and lays out better ways to understand addiction for those seeking a more effective and compassionate approach to this treatable problem.
“The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease”
by Marc Lewis
With 6 pages of end notes pointing to additional research sources
Through the vivid, true stories of five people who journeyed into and out of addiction, a renowned neuroscientist explains why the “disease model” of addiction is wrong and illuminates the path to recovery.
The psychiatric establishment and rehab industry in the Western world have branded addiction a brain disease, based on evidence that brains change with drug use. But in The Biology of Desire, cognitive neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis makes a convincing case that addiction is not a disease, and shows why the disease model has become an obstacle to healing.
Lewis reveals addiction as an unintended consequence of the brain doing what it’s supposed to do-seek pleasure and relief-in a world that’s not cooperating. Brains are designed to restructure themselves with normal learning and development, but this process is accelerated in addiction when highly attractive rewards are pursued repeatedly. Lewis shows why treatment based on the disease model so often fails, and how treatment can be retooled to achieve lasting recovery, given the realities of brain plasticity. Combining intimate human stories with clearly rendered scientific explanation, The Biology of Desire is enlightening and optimistic reading for anyone who has wrestled with addiction either personally or professionally.
“Baldwin Research Institute”
ADDICTION TREATMENT RESEARCH
In addition to the Baldwin Report of 1990, more up to date information has been added. Over the last 25 years, dedicated researchers at Baldwin Research Institute, Inc. have studied and analyzed the current state of treatment, its successes, its failures, and effective methods for positive human development.
The debate over the validity of the disease concept continues to consume opposing schools of thought regarding addictions and substance abuse treatment. This debate has done nothing to provide better programs for patients with substance abuse problems.
As a result of our efforts to provide the public with scientifically responsible research and the results or outcomes of said research, our findings have led our organization to change its original purpose of existing solely as a research organization to that of a proactive group working to change the face of treatment.
A lack of responsible research has led to a disastrous situation. The introduction of responsible research outcome result reports appears to be the only avenue for achieving our goal.
“The Business of Recovery”
Greg Horvath, Producer
This film can be purchased for $10 – Itunes, Amazon, VIMEO etc
“As drug and alcohol addictions skyrocket, The Business of Recovery examines the untold billions that are being made off of families in crisis. With little regulation or science, the addiction treatment industry has become a cash cow business that continues to grow while the addiction death rates continue to rise.
Through unique access to internationally recognized treatment facilities, as well as emotional stories of addicts and their families, the film reveals how the treatment industry in the United States preys on addicts with little more than promises of hope and a huge bill.
The film challenges us to reconsider our assumptions about treating addiction and the human cost we will pay by allowing the industry to continue business as usual.”
“The 13th Step Film”
by Monica Richardson
This film can be purchased for $10 – Itunes, Amazon, VIMEO etc
Karla Brada Mendez was one of these women. She met Eric Allen Earle in AA. Karla was there to seek help with alcohol and drug overuse; Earle was court-ordered to attend AA for the fourth time. He had already spent two years in prison and had six restraining orders against him. Court records clearly documented his relapses with alcohol and violent behavior towards those closest to him.
According to his friends, Earle, age 40, trolled meetings for emotionally vulnerable women who would take him in. He had a string of girlfriends that he all met in AA, and Karla, age 31, would soon become one of them. After enduring months of escalating domestic violence, Karla was found strangled in her apartment in 2011. Earle now faces charges for her murder.
Karla’s story is not the only one. AA has built a reputation among predators as a place to find victims. Sexual predators learn how to rise up the ranks of AA and use their power to target women with less than one year of sobriety, who they consider the most vulnerable. This phenomenon has become so common that members refer to it as ‘the 13th step.’ Meanwhile, the organization’s leadership has done little to implement safety measures at their meetings and judges continue sentencing violent offenders to meetings in droves.
“The Truth About the Rehab Industry and 12-Step Programs”
Find this Podcast on the Tom Woods Show on YouTube. It’s Episode 342. Published on Feb 17, 2015
Dr. Lance Dodes, retired professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, debunks the bad science behind “rehab” and 12-step programs, which have miserable success rates.
And last but not least:
“The Clean Slate Addiction Site”
by Steven Slate
A meticulously researched and humbly written resource website for people who truly want to find freedom from addictive substance use.
Most everything is written from the perspective that the behavior and emotional/motivational states that are normally referred to as “addiction” are under full volitional control of the individual. Or, as it’s simply put in the tagline to the site “addiction is not a disease, it is a choice.” Of course, there are nuances to this point of view that can’t be summed up so quickly, but those nuances are dealt with in the various articles contained within this site.
All content on this site (except where obviously noted as quotes from other sources) is written by Steven Slate. He has studied and learned about this subject in many ways. First, as a happy drug user, and then as a troubled drug user, from the ages of 17-26 years old, including 5 years in various treatment programs and support groups (inpatient addiction treatment, outpatient counseling, methadone programs, detoxes, psychiatric care, and in the rooms of AA, NA, and CA).