The Shocking Findings About Addiction

More people stop drinking and using drugs than those than maintain them. These people do it on their own, with their own propencity to change or sometimes not to change. Stanton Peele says,  “People succeed when they recognize that the addiction interferes with something they value—and when they develop the confidence that they can change.”

adamfoxie* blog has transcribe this document by Stanton Peele, Ph.D, who is a social/clinical psychologist who has greatly influenced the addiction field. published on May 01, 2004 - last reviewed on January 03, 2011.

This document points out to us in a matter of simplicity and common sense, that addiction comes from within us,
and the cessation of addiction also comes from within us. That is not to say that some sort of mediation  or intervention is not indicated.  As a matter of fact intervention or mediation can be very helpful. I am not an expert on alcoholism, except with what I have witness in my family and friends and  what I have read.  I do know that by calling alcoholics ‘sick people for life’,  I don’t think it accomplishes much. I am not saying that alcoholism is not a disease, even though I see it as a condition. Many diseases have no cure. But conditions usually do have cures. They are in many cases temporary from when the signs appear and when something occurs to make the person not be sick anymore. Again, I’m not proposing that  someone who  quits but has been an alcoholic for half his life time, once he is not drinking, to go back to the old ways that caused him the problem in the first place.  It is well established that some people should not come close to any alcohol, just like an ex-junkie can not be involved with the junk or junkie friends that he or she had to start with. What I am saying is that once the person quits, the person can go back to be a productive member of society. May be not in the same field, may be all the bridges were burn, or the desire is no longer there to go back to the old job, etc. But the person can go back and reclaim a piece of sanity, a piece of self respect and find another niche where he she can be productive.
There is of coarse different levels of alcoholism with different levels of cessation. Some of them need more help than others. But I think is plainly obvious that traditional ways does not work that well.
I decided to interject my thoughts together with the writings of Dr.Peele. becuase I like what he wrote. I think it makes a lot of sense. May be it will make sense to you or someone you know. Let’s read what he says about the shocking truth about  addiction and I will come back at the end for a few thouughts.
Adam Gonzalez
http://adamfoxie.blogspot.com

Change is natural. You no doubt act very differently in many areas of your life now compared with how you did when you were a teenager. Likewise, over time you will probably overcome or ameliorate certain behaviors: a short temper, crippling insecurity.

For some reason, we exempt addiction from our beliefs about change. Addiction is seen as locking you into a lock room. by word of mouth and as represented by Alcoholics Anonymous, and modern neuroscience they regard addiction as a virtually permanent brain disease. No matter how many years ago your uncle Joe had his last drink, he is still considered an alcoholic. The very word addict confers an identity that admits no other possibilities. It incorporates the assumption that you can't, or won't, change.

But this fatalistic thinking about addiction doesn't jibe with the facts. More people overcome addictions than do not. And the vast majority do so without therapy. Quitting may take several tries, and people may not stopsmoking, drinking or using drugs altogether. But eventually they succeed in shaking dependence.

Kicking these habits constitutes a dramatic change, but the change need not occur in a dramatic way. So when it comes to addiction treatment, the most effective approaches rely on the principle that less is often more. Successful treatment places the responsibility for change squarely on the individual and acknowledges that positive events in other realms may jump-start change.

Consider the experience of American soldiers returning from the war in Vietnam, where heroin use and addiction was widespread. In 90 percent of cases, when GIs left the pressure cooker of the battle zone, they also shed their addictions—  proof that drug addiction can be just a matter of where in life you are.

Of course, it took more than a plane trip back from Asia for these men to overcome drug addiction. Most soldiers experienced dramatically altered lives when they returned. They left the anxiety, fear and boredom of the war arena and settled back into their home environments. They returned to their families, formed new relationships, developed work skills.

Smoking is at the top of the charts in terms of difficulty of quitting. But the majority of ex-smokers quit without any aid––neither nicotine patches nor gum, Smokenders groups nor hypnotism. (Don't take my word for it; at your next social gathering, ask how many people have quit smoking on their own.) In fact, as many cigarette smokers quit on their own, an even higher percentage of heroin and cocaine addicts and alcoholics quit without treatment. It is simply more difficult to keep these habits going through adulthood. It's hard to go to Disney World with your family while you are shooting heroin. Addicts who quit on their own typically report that they did so in order to achieve normalcy.

Every year, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health interviews Americans about their drug and alcohol habits. Ages 18 to 25 constitute the peak period of drug and alcohol use. In 2002, the latest year for which data are available, 22 percent of Americans between ages 18 and 25 were abusing or were dependent on a substance, versus only 3 percent of those aged 55 to 59. These data show that most people overcome their substance abuse, even though most of them do not enter treatment.

How do we know that the majority aren't seeking treatment? In 1992, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism conducted one of the largest surveys of substance use ever, sending Census Bureau workers to interview more than 42,000 Americans about their lifetime drug and alcohol use. Of the 4,500-plus respondents who had ever been dependent on alcohol, only 27 percent had gone to treatment of any kind, including Alcoholics Anonymous. In this group, one-third were still abusing alcohol.

Of those who never had any treatment, only about one-quarter were currently diagnosable as alcohol abusers. This study, known as the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey, indicates first that treatment is not a cure-all, and second that it is not necessary. The vast majority of Americans who were alcohol dependent, about three-quarters, never underwent treatment. And fewer of them were abusing alcohol than were those who were treated.

This is not to say that treatment can't be useful. But the most successful treatments are nonconfrontational approaches that allow self-propelled change. Psychologists at the University of New Mexico led by William Miller tabulated every controlled study of alcoholism treatment they could find. They concluded that the leading therapy was barely a therapy at all but a quick encounter between patient and health-care worker in an ordinary medical setting. The intervention is sometimes as brief as a doctor looking at the results of liver-function tests and telling a patient to cut down on his drinking. Many patients then decide to cut back—and do!

As brief interventions have evolved, they have become more structured. A physician may simply review the amount the patient drinks, or use a checklist to evaluate the extent of a drinking problem. The doctor then typically recommends and seeks agreement from the patient on a goal (usually reduced drinking rather than complete abstinence). More severe alcoholics would typically be referred out for specialized treatment. A range of options is discussed (such as attending AA, engaging in activities incompatible with drinking or using a self-help manual). A spouse or family member might be involved in the planning. The patient is then scheduled for a future visit, where progress can be checked. A case monitor might call every few weeks to see whether the person has any questions or problems.
The second most effective approach is motivational enhancement, also called motivational interviewing. This technique throws the decision to quit or reduce drinking—and to find the best methods for doing so—back on the individual. In this case, the therapist asks targeted questions that prompt the individual to reflect on his drinking in terms of his own values and goals. When patients resist, the therapist does not argue with the individual but explores the person's ambivalence about change so as to allow him or her to draw his own conclusions: "You say that you like to be in control of your behavior, yet you feel when you drink you are often not in charge. Could you just clarify that for me?"

Miller's team found that the list of most effective treatments for alcoholism included a few more surprises. Self-help manuals were highly successful. So was the community-reinforcement approach, which addresses the person's capacity to deal with life, notably marital relationships, work issues (such as simply getting a job), leisure planning and social-group formation (a buddy might be provided, as in AA, as a resource to encourage sobriety). The focus is on developing life skills, such as resisting pressures to drink, coping with stress (at work and in relationships) and building communication skills.
These findings square with what we know about change in other areas of life: People change when they want it badly enough and when they feel strong enough to face the challenge, not when they're humiliated or coerced. An approach that empowers and offers positive reinforcement is preferable to one that strips the individual of agency. These techniques are most likely to elicit real changes, however short of perfect and hard-won they may be.



Well what do you think? I think for too long we have been dooming people into a lock room in which only someone from the outside has the key to exit. Reading these comments I can see that it jives with common sense. If you have seen people that have stop drinking these passages make a lot of sense.

if you have any comments, you can make it here at Back To Basics Please or you can email to adamfoxie@gmail.com. Comments will be posted. Thank you for reading....it is fundamental!