Originally Posted by
samseb5351 
What did you learn about the RR description of addiction that made sense to you on a personal level? Do you think the RR description of addiction is widely shared by the personal and professional recovery community? Here is RR's simple version of What is addiction?
What is addiction?
Addiction is a voluntary behavior (such as drinking alcohol or using drugs) that persists against your own own better judgment. Thus, addiction cannot be “diagnosed” or attributed to you by others, including physicians. It is solely up to you to decide if your drinking threatens or harms others and yourself. You must decide now whether continuing your addictive pleasures is worth the destruction that will likely result. In other words, you are free to choose between drinking and not drinking — between the high life and family life, between right and wrong.
As you can see Mr Trimpey clearly categorizes drinking as, high life and wrong versus non drinking as family life and right. What do you think he actually means here and is this the same choiice for all people and all addictions?
Do you also believe we volunteer to be addicts, was that our intention or will?
For me the biggest take away from the material was divorcing the disease model from addiction.
I don't have a copy of the book with me , but I think your quasi quote was taken slightly out of context , in the sense that I do not remember it, the book, refuting the law of causality. I do not believe that I can choose whether or not losing my job would have adverse effects for my family, or that I have choice over whether or not causing an accident while driving intoxicated will have adverse effects on those involved. But I do believe I have a choice to drink or use drugs.
I also believe that when someone realizes (if?) they are addicted , it is within their power to end the addiction, actually the addict is the only one that can end it.
Addiction is , I think, a many faceted phenomenon , there is physical/chemical dependency aspect that contributes to how the individual perceives and processes reality and how it can seem to the individual that they are being controlled by an outside force.
My perspective change came in the form of seeing that letting myself be controlled by the desire (and acting on the desire) to be intoxicated ,come hell or high water , was the problem and I could actively work to change that behavior.
I ended my addiction by consciously deciding to stop drinking( I made a choice), and I choose to not become addicted again.
I am not sure what you want to hear from me ,but the material in JT's book showed , me at least, that that choice was possible. Prior to reading the material the only perspective on addiction I had came from the "recovery community/philosophy" that allowed me to see my addiction as a disease , which quite frankly gave me a good "out" for a number of years, eg in essence I was a faultless victim doomed to forces beyond my control ect. It may be the case that I misinterpreted both sources, but good on me anyway, eh?
I am a non drinker, and plan to stay that way.
