samseb5351

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Thanks for your response anattaboy. I do agree that data on addictions is incomplete and lacks vigor, as addiction tends to sit outside of the more exact medical sciences (there are no blood test or genetic marker or exact brain state or tumor or growth in the body) so no doctor can really do a test and say there it is you have an addiction, and therefore the Disease model is kind of a strange approach as the diagnosis tends to be subjective. There is so much to consider with diagnosis of addiction and my biggest issue is (and I am not sure Mr Peele isn't part of this as well) there are many voices making Hardline conclusions as if addiction was within the realm of exact science. The world is overflowing with camps of people who express recovery with a " I have the answer" attitude and yes much of this is to make money and almost none of it has Good and rigorous science backing it up, much of the time new ideas rely on a anti stance towards old ideas, and that kind of either/or expression often is the main selling point to get people to buy a book or attend a therapist or follow a new program (I totally agree these approaches tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater). I am still a skeptic with Mr Peele's conclusions of what does and doesn't work and sometimes the either/or fallacy puts me off on my contemplative days, But can spark me up on my annoyed angry days (I tend to favor the ideas presented by Mr Peele, but when I turn the skeptical disposition on myself I don't really have much data apart from a very small world in recovery revolving mainly around my personal experience)


You mentioned AA's biggest asset is its self supporting and I am not so sure this is an asset for society in general. What seems to happen is when you sit a program outside of the marketplace (in economic terms) that it tends to sit the program outside of the Marketplace of ideas. I think what may need challenging here is the ideas that being self supporting equals altruism, altruism as I understand it is selflessness and I think its a mistake to equate altruism directly with internal versus external financial interests.
I suppose it depends on what is measured as selfless acts, I understand concepts that helping others, helps ourselves, I don't think this is altruism.

You mention altrustic spirit would maybe help to make the science of recovery better, I disagree here. Time, expertise and equipment that helps collect and analyze the data requires money. I was often (before I became a skeptic) of the belief that Money spoils things, that selfishness wins over wanting to make the world a better place, however once I started getting interested in how science works, Much of my beliefs (things like big Pharma ) were unfounded.(just another version of throwing the baby out with the bath water)

These are just some of my thoughts on the matter.