bunchie

I have been reading Biology of Desire , it was brought to my attention on SR, the author Marc Lewis believes addiction is not a disease but learned behaviour. I really do not know where I stand on this but the book is very interesting and informative. However , before I came to sober recovery I believed that addiction was a disease, it was told to me in AA , and actually I believe that when it was determined that alcoholics were sick and diseased , it made it easier for alcoholic's to come forward. It really does not matter to me if it is a disease or learned behaviour, the only way out of it is to stop.However I disagree with the way AA tells us we are doomed forever, I believe there is a lot of negative thought in the AA model. I believe in God , I believed before I was an alcoholic and I firmly believe in him today , I believe he gave me the free will to decide how to conduct my life , and I became alcoholic on my own choices So I do believe that the author Marc Lewis , an addict once, a neuroscience PhD is clearly making progress with his idea that addiction is a choice, why do we , programs like AA and institutions like rehab shun progress, is it because they are making money , not AA but the rehabs of America are. Every time I turn the radio on in my car I hear an advertisement for alcohol and drug rehab. Marc points to statistics in the book that clearly show that the disease model is not working and rehab is very ineffective. It just surprises me that institutions debate what is clearly a failing solution , I think we should be open to all ideas on addiction especially ones with modern science , we know so much more about the brain now compared to when AA and rehabs were developed.