Originally Posted by
dwtbd 
Heavy use?
It really seems from your reporting , perhaps it is just your reporting of the model and not specifically the model itself, it just seems that continued use isn’t an issue, that part and parcel of the model is its ambivalence toward use.
It isn't ambivalent towards use. It's an educational tool not a prescriptive program and tries to help people make informed choices about their own substance use habits. It says that you should do whatever offers you the greatest level of happiness and helps you to figure out what that is. Without getting into the statistics, most people who have gone on their retreat and learnt the model decide that they want to quit and are long-term successful. Others decide that they want to moderate, whether successfully or not I don't know - the statistics do not include this category in the published success rate quoted above - and unsurprisingly some decide to continue with their heavy substance use.
Originally Posted by
dwtbd Heavy use?
Does the model speak at all to the experience of intoxication? Why it is appealing , or does it just take for granted that it is of course appealing , that the sensation is pleasurable?
I assume it addresses this because Chapter 20 is entitled "Pleasure"! I haven't got that far yet so I can't answer your question but the in the little I have read it does say that alcohol does not contain pleasure in the way an apple contains nutrients. Pleasure isn't a quality that exists within things - it's more subjective than that. That seems right - I didn't find that drinking gave me "pleasure" in any meaningful sense around the time I decided to quit.