Should you focus on the past and feel as if you’re doomed to repeat it, and that you’ve created immutable character defects, or have changed into a permanently diseased addict or alcoholic doomed to relapse? Should you beware of your disease, avoid overconfidence/arrogance and simply take things “one day at a time”? Maybe it’s better to believe that you can change permanently, and to envision a better future for yourself. Maybe it’s better to simply think about those things that would make you happier than a cheap high and to work towards those things. That’s what I think anyways, and I think Martin Seligman would agree.
Month: May 2011
Moby On Addiction
I’m not sure whether he realizes it or not, but electronic musician Moby has laid out the basics of a choice model approach to addiction in this brief interview he recently gave.
Ending Your Desire to Use is a Myth?
One “recovering addict’s” idea of a myth kicks off an important discussion about attitudes towards sobriety. Unfortunately, in the recovery culture, sobriety is seen as a sort of punishment, and they still conceive of the high as a great temptation to be avoided. Meanwhile, many people outgrow such desires by realizing that there are better things in life.
Backwards-Land: The Revelation of “Rewards”
The addiction experts have finally begun to admit the real meaning of their theories – that addiction is about competing rewards – immediate versus delayed long-term gratification. If this is what it’s all about, then it’s clearly quite idiotic to insist that addiction and alcoholism are diseases. Indeed, if we accept this logic, then we’re all born diseased and nearly every bad decision is the result of a disease. Addiction is a choice.
Can A Former Drinker Go To Bars?
Many people are taught in “recovery” that they’re incapable of entering a club or bar without relapsing. This keeps people in a state of irrational fear rather than empowerment.