Originally Posted by
JeffreyAK 
It's therefore hard for me to understand someone from that population trying to tell me what addiction and abstinence is like, or ought to be like, or that there is no such thing as addiction, or PAWS, etc. There's a need for direct personal experience, and that can't really be compensated by a clinical sort of detachment relying on research and statistics.
Steven has talked above about his problematic heroin use so I'm not sure why you're saying this.
A model that has happiness as the central motivating factor in recovery is hardly clinically detached. Measured success rates are important because they can help the model evolve and also give confidence to the user.
Originally Posted by
JeffreyAK Summed up, that's kinda my take on this. Moderation management has a role, and I'm sure the freedom model has a role, but probably not for the vast majority of alcohol addicts who need to hear the truth, which is that they need to stop drinking and remain abstinent permanently.
Or perhaps the very different truth that they need to stop thinking like an addict permanently.