Anyone have any thoughts on Stanton Peele's Approach?
Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posts: 14
I know I haven't posted in a while here but, I wanted to chime in too because this has been such an interesting thread.
The thing I like about Peele's approch is that he recognizes that drug use (alcohol too) is a symptom of a deeper problem within the person. Not necessarily some huge revelation about your childhood or anything, i'm talking about anxiety and depression et al. I think the difference between Peele's approach and 12-step programs is just the way in which each advocates solving those problems. AA (for example) advocates a spiritual approach, which is great. Peele focuses more on the therapy side, which is also great. Both work for different people. Although I do not attend AA, I think it is great for some people. You meet new people, it gets you out of the house/away from work, and provides a supportive atmosphere. Some poeple don't want that though...the thing to remember is that there *are* alternatives.
The thing I like about Peele's approch is that he recognizes that drug use (alcohol too) is a symptom of a deeper problem within the person. Not necessarily some huge revelation about your childhood or anything, i'm talking about anxiety and depression et al. I think the difference between Peele's approach and 12-step programs is just the way in which each advocates solving those problems. AA (for example) advocates a spiritual approach, which is great. Peele focuses more on the therapy side, which is also great. Both work for different people. Although I do not attend AA, I think it is great for some people. You meet new people, it gets you out of the house/away from work, and provides a supportive atmosphere. Some poeple don't want that though...the thing to remember is that there *are* alternatives.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Toronto
Posts: 98
I haven't read Peele's book but I find his philosophies intriguing. I have been to his website and found it interesting. To be honest I don’t do a lot of thinking about not drinking. I just live and enjoy my life for the most part. However when I first got sober I did read a variety of books both on sobriety and making life changes.
For those of you who denigrate Peele for not being an alcoholic and simultaneously believe in the disease concept of alcoholism. If you had cancer would you seek treatment with an Oncologist or would you sit in the waiting room with another cancer patient trying to figure out what neither of you know?
Interesting enough AA co-founder Dr. Bob Smith was a proctologist. Apropos since he had to deal with so many assholes.
For those of you who denigrate Peele for not being an alcoholic and simultaneously believe in the disease concept of alcoholism. If you had cancer would you seek treatment with an Oncologist or would you sit in the waiting room with another cancer patient trying to figure out what neither of you know?
Interesting enough AA co-founder Dr. Bob Smith was a proctologist. Apropos since he had to deal with so many assholes.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: SomeWhere, USA
Posts: 17
Originally Posted by leviathon
DebJ, totally relate to your last post. I am in similar situation in that I grew up in a violently abusive alcoholic home and that has had a lasting impact on my life, how I view life, trust, family and relationships. That is all complicated by the fact that I left home at 14 and disengaged from my family for twenty or so years and then shortly after I begand dealing with them again, my father goes and shoots himself dead.
In short, the answer for me has never been as easy as develop a program and get sober. My life is VERY complicated. I am told that I have a social adjustment disorder (i.e. I don't trust readily or easily) and I fear intimacy. Geeeeee, duh, I was violently beaten, sexually abused by a baby sitter (female thankfully), used drugs to "cope" with my pain and then complicated everything by going on to become a lawyer... gee now lets try to fit in with all these normal people that have had relatively normal lives and have travelled and have mommy and daddy loving them, etc. geeee if only I'd get a program shazam life would be resolved... NOT, not even close.
Sorry, not trying to be sarcastic, but there is so much more to what I am dealing with a program is only one small part of the much larger picture. I really do wish it was all as simple as getting a sponsor and a program and shazam life is better... that has helped (the program part, don't do AA so don't have a sponsor), but I have a lot of other issues that require understanding myself, a psychologist, trauma counselling, etc. There is no miracle in finding a program, that just helped me realize I needed to do something about the drinking, I then had to look at what was causing the drinking and begin to bring that out into the light of day and to work through it.
Peace, Levi.
In short, the answer for me has never been as easy as develop a program and get sober. My life is VERY complicated. I am told that I have a social adjustment disorder (i.e. I don't trust readily or easily) and I fear intimacy. Geeeeee, duh, I was violently beaten, sexually abused by a baby sitter (female thankfully), used drugs to "cope" with my pain and then complicated everything by going on to become a lawyer... gee now lets try to fit in with all these normal people that have had relatively normal lives and have travelled and have mommy and daddy loving them, etc. geeee if only I'd get a program shazam life would be resolved... NOT, not even close.
Sorry, not trying to be sarcastic, but there is so much more to what I am dealing with a program is only one small part of the much larger picture. I really do wish it was all as simple as getting a sponsor and a program and shazam life is better... that has helped (the program part, don't do AA so don't have a sponsor), but I have a lot of other issues that require understanding myself, a psychologist, trauma counselling, etc. There is no miracle in finding a program, that just helped me realize I needed to do something about the drinking, I then had to look at what was causing the drinking and begin to bring that out into the light of day and to work through it.
Peace, Levi.
We have a lot in common; Although I didn't go to Law school, I wanted to for a time. You have a lot of insight into what is "not right" with you.
I can see how it would be problematic being around so many people that had everything we did not...I call that a life of priviledge.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Somwhere over the rainbow
Posts: 1,175
I actually became quite outraged that I was expected to compete with others in law school that had gone to private school, had every opportunity (tutors, etc.) to achieve, and I had nothing. Heck I had dropped out of high school to work as I had to pay my own way. Now I realize, it is not what they had, it was that I was good enough and I just had to work a bit harder than they did. In the end, it doesn't matter, I have my degree, I work in the field that I want and I help those that are in need of legal services. In fact, I do a lot of legal aid and poverty law stuff, though not paying well, it is extremely rewarding. My experience has allowed me to be the lawyer that I am. I am grateful for that.
Peace, Levi
Peace, Levi
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Somwhere over the rainbow
Posts: 1,175
Picking up on this thread, I read a wondeful article that included Stanton and a couple of others in Vancouver this past weekend while I was there. I just thought I would share it...
Finding Meaning in Life Key to Curing Addiction
Treatment for addiction—whether it’s to alcohol, crystal meth, or gambling—often includes counselling, support groups, or medication. But some say that what’s missing from successful therapy is an altogether different element: a sense of meaning. Experts from around the world, along with addicts and those in recovery, are meeting in Vancouver to explore the vital role that spirituality plays in helping people overcome chronic dependency.
New Jersey–based psychologist Stanton Peele is a firm backer of meaning as a crucial remedy for addiction. He’ll be speaking at the International Conference on Personal Meaning: Addiction, Meaning, and Spirituality, which takes place Thursday through Sunday (July 20 to 23) at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown. In a phone interview with the Georgia Straight, Peele says people aren’t motivated to give up a drug or habit just because it’s bad for them or because their nearest and dearest want them to stop.
“People who use alcohol and drugs and don’t become addicted…have things that are more important to them that…prevent them from being submerged in the drug experience,” says Peele, who is also an attorney. “At the other end of the process, when…people overcome addiction, it virtually always boils down to something more important, something beyond themselves.…People always have some higher goal that prevents addiction or enables them to overcome addiction.
“Lack of a higher purpose, lack of concern for other people, lack of involvement with higher goals, lack of commitment to community: those are all significant [risk] factors for who’s likely to become addicted….People have different ways they quit addictions, but that’s all secondary to motivation. Motivation comes from something being more important to them.”
The solution, Peele stresses, isn’t an anti-addiction pill, which the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse is actively investigating. (According to the June 25 New York Times magazine, that group and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism are studying or financing studies into more than 200 addiction medications.)
“It’s impossible to describe why people become addicted or how they get over addiction in terms of purely chemical effects of what they’re addicted to,” he says. “That just doesn’t get you anywhere.”
Although the notion of a higher power shows up in 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous—members turn their lives over to God as they understand him or some other greater force—Peele is critical of that particular approach.
“One of the things that’s wrong with treatment in America is people impose…their values on clients. The better way to…help people overcome addictions is to explore their own values, to find what’s going to give them leverage to overcome their addiction. That’s appropriate psychological technique, as opposed to religious didacticism where you’re kind of beating people over the head with what you think is a good idea.”
According to its Web site, AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution. Peele’s views on the group’s philosophy won’t necessarily align with those of all the 80 other speakers attending the conference, which is being hosted by the Langley-based International Network on Personal Meaning. George Vaillant, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, will give a public lecture called “Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure?” on Sunday (July 23). (Vaillant’s talk is free. For conference details, go to the INPM Web site at www.meaning.ca/.)
And although Ohio theology professor Linda Mercadante will discuss the role of religion in the healing of addictions, any concerns that the Vancouver forum is going to be overly heavy on what Owen Wilson’s character in Meet the Parents refers to as JC are quashed by INPM executive director Paul Wong. He stresses that the organization is nonreligious and nonpartisan. What distinguishes INPM from other spiritual groups is its emphasis on scientific research into the positive psychology of meaning.
Wong started the nonprofit INPM in 1998 because, at the time, there was little such study into meaning and its role in clinical practice. He says he is inspired by Viktor E. Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist who in 1946 wrote Man’s Search for Meaning. The book covers his experiences in a concentration camp and how he found the will to go on despite his terrible circumstances.
Wong himself knows a thing or two about addiction and spirituality: he’s a registered clinical psychologist and an ordained pastor.
“People dealing with addiction need some kind of epiphany to become aware that if there are no changes they will die of overdose. Hitting rock bottom is a turning point,” Wong says in a phone interview. “Then they seek help and enter rehab. But an epiphany is not sufficient. They need another epiphany where they say ‘Ahhh, this is my passion for life, this is what I want to do, this is my future.’ Without future, there is no life. They need a second epiphany. This conference is about helping people discover their second epiphany.”
In his 2005 paper for the Salvation Army’s Vancouver Community and Family Services called Meaning-Centred Approach to Addiction Prevention, Treatment and Recovery, Wong points out some of the problems with Vancouver’s Four Pillars approach. It fails to recognize two root causes of addiction: dislocation and “existential vacuum”, or meaninglessness, Wong writes. The latter leads to chronic feelings of boredom and despair.
The treatment goals of the meaning-centred approach include not only recovery from addiction but also restoring a person to wholeness. MCA rests on a tragic sense of optimism: it recognizes bleak reality but believes that there is hope for every addict.
Wong says the conference aims to help addicts themselves find that hope.
“You don’t have to believe ‘once an addict, always an addict,’?” he says. Besides sessions about logotherapy and the need for evidence-based research into meaning, the INPM conference also has seminars on yoga and Buddhist Vipassana meditation.
“This is for people looking for encouragement on the journey to wholeness,” Wong says. “Which new path do you want to pursue?”
By gail johnson
Publish Date: 20-Jul-2006
Mark “Atomos” Pilon illustration
Peace Levi
Finding Meaning in Life Key to Curing Addiction
Treatment for addiction—whether it’s to alcohol, crystal meth, or gambling—often includes counselling, support groups, or medication. But some say that what’s missing from successful therapy is an altogether different element: a sense of meaning. Experts from around the world, along with addicts and those in recovery, are meeting in Vancouver to explore the vital role that spirituality plays in helping people overcome chronic dependency.
New Jersey–based psychologist Stanton Peele is a firm backer of meaning as a crucial remedy for addiction. He’ll be speaking at the International Conference on Personal Meaning: Addiction, Meaning, and Spirituality, which takes place Thursday through Sunday (July 20 to 23) at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown. In a phone interview with the Georgia Straight, Peele says people aren’t motivated to give up a drug or habit just because it’s bad for them or because their nearest and dearest want them to stop.
“People who use alcohol and drugs and don’t become addicted…have things that are more important to them that…prevent them from being submerged in the drug experience,” says Peele, who is also an attorney. “At the other end of the process, when…people overcome addiction, it virtually always boils down to something more important, something beyond themselves.…People always have some higher goal that prevents addiction or enables them to overcome addiction.
“Lack of a higher purpose, lack of concern for other people, lack of involvement with higher goals, lack of commitment to community: those are all significant [risk] factors for who’s likely to become addicted….People have different ways they quit addictions, but that’s all secondary to motivation. Motivation comes from something being more important to them.”
The solution, Peele stresses, isn’t an anti-addiction pill, which the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse is actively investigating. (According to the June 25 New York Times magazine, that group and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism are studying or financing studies into more than 200 addiction medications.)
“It’s impossible to describe why people become addicted or how they get over addiction in terms of purely chemical effects of what they’re addicted to,” he says. “That just doesn’t get you anywhere.”
Although the notion of a higher power shows up in 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous—members turn their lives over to God as they understand him or some other greater force—Peele is critical of that particular approach.
“One of the things that’s wrong with treatment in America is people impose…their values on clients. The better way to…help people overcome addictions is to explore their own values, to find what’s going to give them leverage to overcome their addiction. That’s appropriate psychological technique, as opposed to religious didacticism where you’re kind of beating people over the head with what you think is a good idea.”
According to its Web site, AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution. Peele’s views on the group’s philosophy won’t necessarily align with those of all the 80 other speakers attending the conference, which is being hosted by the Langley-based International Network on Personal Meaning. George Vaillant, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, will give a public lecture called “Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure?” on Sunday (July 23). (Vaillant’s talk is free. For conference details, go to the INPM Web site at www.meaning.ca/.)
And although Ohio theology professor Linda Mercadante will discuss the role of religion in the healing of addictions, any concerns that the Vancouver forum is going to be overly heavy on what Owen Wilson’s character in Meet the Parents refers to as JC are quashed by INPM executive director Paul Wong. He stresses that the organization is nonreligious and nonpartisan. What distinguishes INPM from other spiritual groups is its emphasis on scientific research into the positive psychology of meaning.
Wong started the nonprofit INPM in 1998 because, at the time, there was little such study into meaning and its role in clinical practice. He says he is inspired by Viktor E. Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist who in 1946 wrote Man’s Search for Meaning. The book covers his experiences in a concentration camp and how he found the will to go on despite his terrible circumstances.
Wong himself knows a thing or two about addiction and spirituality: he’s a registered clinical psychologist and an ordained pastor.
“People dealing with addiction need some kind of epiphany to become aware that if there are no changes they will die of overdose. Hitting rock bottom is a turning point,” Wong says in a phone interview. “Then they seek help and enter rehab. But an epiphany is not sufficient. They need another epiphany where they say ‘Ahhh, this is my passion for life, this is what I want to do, this is my future.’ Without future, there is no life. They need a second epiphany. This conference is about helping people discover their second epiphany.”
In his 2005 paper for the Salvation Army’s Vancouver Community and Family Services called Meaning-Centred Approach to Addiction Prevention, Treatment and Recovery, Wong points out some of the problems with Vancouver’s Four Pillars approach. It fails to recognize two root causes of addiction: dislocation and “existential vacuum”, or meaninglessness, Wong writes. The latter leads to chronic feelings of boredom and despair.
The treatment goals of the meaning-centred approach include not only recovery from addiction but also restoring a person to wholeness. MCA rests on a tragic sense of optimism: it recognizes bleak reality but believes that there is hope for every addict.
Wong says the conference aims to help addicts themselves find that hope.
“You don’t have to believe ‘once an addict, always an addict,’?” he says. Besides sessions about logotherapy and the need for evidence-based research into meaning, the INPM conference also has seminars on yoga and Buddhist Vipassana meditation.
“This is for people looking for encouragement on the journey to wholeness,” Wong says. “Which new path do you want to pursue?”
By gail johnson
Publish Date: 20-Jul-2006
Mark “Atomos” Pilon illustration
Peace Levi
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Somwhere over the rainbow
Posts: 1,175
No Problem Don, after reading a lot of your posts, I kind a felt you would relate to this posting. The article was incredible to read and conforms with my view of what it takes to get better.
Peace, Levi
Peace, Levi
Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 27
I have been visiting this site for less than a week. I want to thank everyone participating in this thread. As I find myself at a point where considering my own drawbacks/problems has become an absolute necessity, I think reading and trying to understand the well articulated and thoughtful viewpoints expressed here could actually be a sort of therapy for me. My desire to quit drinking, though real, now seems to be of a rather shallow nature.
I am very impressed with how many of you have addressed your addictions in such depth. I am embarrassed for myself when I consider how I originally thought I would use the facilities offered within the parameters of this site. It is far more than a place where I can post and say, "I'm not going to drink today", though that certainly can have value also. I apologize for underestimating its content.
It is obvious that many of you are not content to say, "this has worked for me", but are determined to understand WHY what you have done has worked to keep you sober.
I'm going to make a concerted effort to research the different theories regarding recovery from alcoholism. That alone may be enough intellectual stimulation to keep me occupied and out of trouble for the next couple weeks.
Thanks again for this thread, I'm going to dig into this site for other similar discussions. I'm sorry that this post did not directly address the topic at hand.
Kevin
I am very impressed with how many of you have addressed your addictions in such depth. I am embarrassed for myself when I consider how I originally thought I would use the facilities offered within the parameters of this site. It is far more than a place where I can post and say, "I'm not going to drink today", though that certainly can have value also. I apologize for underestimating its content.
It is obvious that many of you are not content to say, "this has worked for me", but are determined to understand WHY what you have done has worked to keep you sober.
I'm going to make a concerted effort to research the different theories regarding recovery from alcoholism. That alone may be enough intellectual stimulation to keep me occupied and out of trouble for the next couple weeks.
Thanks again for this thread, I'm going to dig into this site for other similar discussions. I'm sorry that this post did not directly address the topic at hand.
Kevin
Member
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Northern CA
Posts: 1,432
Welcome, Musky, and you certainly have nothing to apologize for!
Peele has a very useful site. I also really like the articles at this site:
http://www.rational.org.nz/public.htm
...especially Who Controls You?
[Note: this is NOT Rational Recovery's web site; it's a CBT site in New Zealand.]
I also recommend, if you can find it, Vince Fox's book Addiction, Change, and Choice. Anne M. Fletcher's book Sober For Good is great. Jack Trimpey's The Small Book (Rational Recovery Systems). Tom Horvath's Sex, Drugs, Gambling & Chocolate. Philip Tate's Alcohol: How To Give It Up and Be Glad You Did. And, of course, somewhere along the line you probably will want to read the 'big book' of Alcoholics Anonymous. It's available online.
Peele has a very useful site. I also really like the articles at this site:
http://www.rational.org.nz/public.htm
...especially Who Controls You?
[Note: this is NOT Rational Recovery's web site; it's a CBT site in New Zealand.]
I also recommend, if you can find it, Vince Fox's book Addiction, Change, and Choice. Anne M. Fletcher's book Sober For Good is great. Jack Trimpey's The Small Book (Rational Recovery Systems). Tom Horvath's Sex, Drugs, Gambling & Chocolate. Philip Tate's Alcohol: How To Give It Up and Be Glad You Did. And, of course, somewhere along the line you probably will want to read the 'big book' of Alcoholics Anonymous. It's available online.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 27
Don S
Thank you for that list of books and the website. A trip to the bookstore is in order. I have Anne Fletcher's book from several years back, which I mainly purchased to show my wife I was trying. I read some of it, but it didn't resonate at the time due to my mind set. I'm a constant reader, our house is full of packed bookcases. It's time to add a few self help titles to the fiction and history that line the shelves.
I started this recent journey by reading most of the AA Big Book on line last Saturday, but I also need to look elsewhere. At this point I have no meetings in my plan.
Kevin
Thank you for that list of books and the website. A trip to the bookstore is in order. I have Anne Fletcher's book from several years back, which I mainly purchased to show my wife I was trying. I read some of it, but it didn't resonate at the time due to my mind set. I'm a constant reader, our house is full of packed bookcases. It's time to add a few self help titles to the fiction and history that line the shelves.
I started this recent journey by reading most of the AA Big Book on line last Saturday, but I also need to look elsewhere. At this point I have no meetings in my plan.
Kevin
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Somwhere over the rainbow
Posts: 1,175
Hi Kevin and welcome. The hardest step is recognizing that there is something wrong. The next step is to ask what to do about it. Reading a wide range of information on the issue is great, but don't forget to apply what you are reading... I did that when I first started trying to stop.
Peace, Levi
Peace, Levi
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
