Excerpted from What We Now Know About Treating Alcoholism and Other Addictions
By Stanton Peele
The Harvard Mental Health Letter, December 1991and at www .peele .net
• Whether people succeed in overcoming an addiction may not be determined primarily by the treatment they receive. [George] Vaillant notes that "the most important single prognostic variable associated with remission among alcoholics who attend alcohol clinics is having something to lose if they continue to abuse alcohol."
• As the decisive influence of these social circumstances proves, alcoholism is not a "primary" illness whose course is determined solely by some inexorable internal mechanism. The same is true of other addictions.
• The best way to discourage addictive behavior is to show people how to meet the demands of life without drinking or drug use.
• [The] most effective programs provided alcoholics with training in stress management and self-control, social and negotiation skills, job skills, and work habits.
• The most successful program for hospitalized alcoholics ever evaluated is the community reinforcement approach, which systematically trains alcoholics in job and marital skills while arranging a work and home environment that sustains and rewards sobriety.
Last edited by historyteach; 08-20-2006 at 12:19 AM.