The Freedom Model for addictions : escape the treatment and recovery trap

Do you want an addiction – a lifelong diagnosis – or do you want to see yourself as having a habit that you can solve completely? Your answer tells you if The Freedom Model for Addictions is the answer you have been looking for. The Freedom Model debunks the addiction disease concept as well as the idea that “recovery” is needed after you’ve decided to abstain or moderate your use. Much of the content within the book may surprise you, maybe even shock you. For example: Did you know addiction IS NOT a disease? Did you know the brain disease theory is not based on sound science and is actually a myth? Did you know that addictions are habits, just like many other habits, and that as such are quite easy to break once you know the facts? Does your gut tell you that treatment is just another money grab from those who are vulnerable, and that something is drastically wrong with the rehab industry as a whole? If so, you’d be right – rehabs don’t work, and The Freedom Model tells you exactly why and how this Western cultural institution came to gain such power over people’s lives. For those immersed in the 12 step culture or in the rehab culture, this book provides a path out of those institutions, and into a much more empowered state of mind. Our experience of researching drug and alcohol use and helping thousands with these issues for more than 30 years tells us people desire to be completely free from addiction. They also want to be free from the idea of being “in recovery” just as much. Neither of these options: addiction or recovery – have held great favor with the masses. In fact, the vast majority of people with drug and alcohol problems (more than 90%) don’t go to treatment nor do they enter the subculture of “recovery.” They simply move past their addictions, and they do so without any treatment whatsoever. Did you know that? This is the great untold story in treatment circles, but one we unearth for your benefit. This fact alone demonstrates just how normal it is to break habits that we no longer want in our lives. Let’s face it, people desire freedom; freedom to choose their own direction; freedom to move past habits that have them feeling trapped and in pain; freedom from the addict and alcoholic identity; freedom from the limits of 12 step culture and the drug and alcohol rehabilitation industry; freedom to be happier; freedom to move on past the struggles and challenges of life . The Freedom Model guides the reader on this path by offering the opposite of the treatment industry’s empty promises – it offers real freedom! The Freedom Model is an approach that de constructs the construct of addiction and recovery and all that surrounds these beliefs. By doing so, you can be completely free to move on in your life without those constructs holding you back and keeping you needlessly trapped in an endless addiction/recovery/addiction cycle. The Freedom Model renders addiction and recovery as completely obsolete and unnecessary in both your personal life and as cultural constructs that keep the masses blind to the solutions that exist within the individual. While The Freedom Model is a book, it is the research and the message contained on those pages that are the real solution to an individual’s struggles with drugs and alcohol. Foreword Acknowledgements Preface The Addiction and Recovery Religion The Freedom Model Pursuit of Happiness is the Key “Abstinence or Your Life!” – the False Alternative Starting on the right foot Substance Use Is Risky Beliefs Are Powerful Chapter 1: How to Escape the Addiction and Recovery Trap Addiction and Recovery Ideology Is Wrong and Creates Perpetual Struggle The Freedom Model Nobody Needs Treatment Addiction and Recovery: Two Sides of the Same Coin An Important Note About the Recovery Society Chapter 2: “You Have to Want It to Work” The Freedom Model: A Positive Approach Do You Want “Recovery”? Cornered Into Perpetual Recovery Lost in Processes Indirect Processes of Change Chapter 3: The Quick Answers Are You Denying That Addiction Exists? What Is The Freedom Model and How Can It Help Me? How Do I Quit Drinking or Drugging? How Do I Deal With Withdrawal? How Do I Resist Cravings? Isn’t Addiction Genetic? Can I Really Moderate? Be Patient Chapter 4: Why Do I Keep Doing This? Why Do I Prefer It? Some Primary Reasons Behind a Preference for Intoxication The Secondary Fortifying Reasons Behind a Strong Preference for Intoxication The Simplest Explanation Is the Most Accurate Explanation Chapter 5: Causes vs. Reasons The “Causes of Addiction” Probabilities Mind Matters Focus on Reasons, Not Causes Chapter 6: Learned Connections What Are Learned Connections? How Beliefs Form and Why They Are Hard to Challenge The Hopi Some Evidence to Consider But What About My Specific Problem? What You Really Need to Know We Aren’t Diminishing or Dismissing Your Problems The Three Building Blocks of Freedom Chapter 7: The Positive Drive Principle All Choices Are Made in Pursuit of Happiness Costly Behaviors Are a Pursuit of Happiness Too Happier Options Outcomes Don’t Reverse Motives There’s One Direction of Motivation: Toward Happiness Happiness Is Subjective and a Mixed Bag Why Is Recognizing the Pursuit of Happiness So Important? Fear Alone Isn’t Enough What to Remember Chapter 8: The Addict/Alcoholic Self-Image Everything Changes Once You See Yourself as Addicted Reality, Interpretations, and Feelings Self-Image Matters Chapter 9: Learning the Addict Self-Image The Playground Effect Deviance, Shame, Shoulds, and Justification Incentivized Helplessness Learning Addiction From Culture The Myth of Addictive Drugs Overcomplicating the Problem Learning Helplessness Through False Failures Those Tempting “Underlying Causes” You Can Break Out of the Addict Role Chapter 10: Constructive Self-Images You Can Change Your Self-Image With Knowledge Changing Learned Connections You Have a Choice Chapter 11: Mental Autonomy and Free Will Do You Agree? Shedding the Addict/Alcoholic Self-Image Chapter 12: Leaving the Cage of Recovery Living Like a Caged Lion Living Free Chapter 13: Success Success Is Knowing That You Are Free and Happily Choosing What You See As Best For You What If You Approached the Decision Without Shame? It’s Your Choice to Make, and Here’s Why It Matters You Are Free to Rethink the Benefits of Continued Substance Use You Are Free to Rethink the Benefits of Reducing or Quitting Substance Use You Are Free to Shift Your Focus From Costs to Benefits Moving Forward Chapter 14: Reclaiming Your Freedom and Happiness You Are What You Think Identical Thoughts = Identical Feelings and Behaviors Choose a New Self-Image Direct Preference Change Chapter 15: Motivators vs. Deterrents You Don’t “Have to” Quit Coercion and Ultimatums Shame and Shoulds Holding Onto Powerlessness Starting Off on the Right Foot Categorical Thinking: Good and Bad Substances Categorical Thinking: Priorities Everything Has a Price Chapter 16: Forging a Lasting Preference Change What Is a Preference? Multiple Options The Problem With Replacement Don’t Make Your Change Unnecessarily Conditional Unhappiness Isn’t a Cause of Heavy Substance Use The Preference Rut Chapter 17: Questioning Drug Effects You Can’t Need What Doesn’t Help You Placebo Effect and Active Placebos The Perceived Effects “Caused” by Identical Substances The Glaring Contradictions Chapter 18: The Illusion of Emotional Relief Drugs and Alcohol Can’t Think for You Constructing the Illusion The Power of Distraction Bandaging—A Vicious Cycle Reprieves What Applies to Stress Applies to Other Emotions Too Chapter 19: Lowered Inhibitions and the License to Misbehave Can the Same Substance Create Opposite Effects? The Perceived Effects “Caused” by Identical Substances The Origin of the License to Misbehave The History of the License to Misbehave The Illusory Benefits of Lowered Inhibitions Chapter 20: Pleasure Pleasurable Things Attributing Pleasure to Substances The Not-So-Simple Pleasure Center Substances Are Subjectively Enjoyed Chapter 21: The Benefits of Adjusted Substance Use Adjusted Substance Use—A New Choice The Relative Benefits of Adjusted Substance Use The Freedom Model Is Not Harm Reduction Reframing Costs to The Freedom Model Perspective of Benefits Chapter 22: The Hidden Costs Benefits of Substance Use You’re Not Stuck Chapter 23: A Happier Vision Weighing Your Options The Benefits of Substance Use Revisited The Benefits of Adjusted Substance Use or Abstinence Vision Pitfalls of Goal Setting Moving Forward Appendix A The Myth of Loss of Control You Can’t Regain What Was Never Lost What Does “Out of Control” Mean? Appendix B The Brain Disease Model of Addiction The Emotional Rhetoric The Neuroscience Explanation Appendix C Addiction Isn’t Chronic Appendix D Heroin and the Myth of “Addictiveness” The Heroin Mythology The Truth of Heroin The Irresistible High Moderate Opiate Users Why We Don’t Hear About Moderate Users? Moderate Use Does Not Inevitably Progress to “Addiction” Can Moderate Users Inject? Can An “Addict” Ever Go Back to Moderate Use? Does Withdrawal Make Heroin/Opiates Addictive? Appendix E People Can Moderate—If They Prefer It You Can Moderate, But Is That What You Really Want to Do? “Yeah, But I Tried Before and Lost Control” The Myth of Willpower What About Impaired Judgment? The Bottom Line Afterword About the Authors Thank you for downloading The Freedom Model for Addictions. "The Freedom Model is a new and revolutionary way at looking into how one can move beyond addiction. The Freedom Model empowers you to achieve permanent success for your substance use problems. Freedom from addiction is knowing you can choose any path for yourself and you are not trapped in lifelong recovery or addiction."--Publisher's description "Do you want an addiction - a lifelong diagnosis and struggle - or would you rather have a normal life problem that can be solved with informed decision-making? Your answer tells you if The Freedom Model for Addictions is the solution you have been seeking."--Publisher's description