"Sometimes I feel like the only free person in America."
/24-7PressRelease/ - AYRSHIRE, SCOTLAND, November 06, 2007 - So says leading addiction expert Dr. Stanton Peele in the latest blog entry shortly to be posted on his authoritative and widely consulted addiction website.
Dr. Peele explains: "Although many question - and some virulently oppose - the disease theory of alcoholism and addiction, only I can speak my mind freely on this topic."
As an example of people's common reluctance to speak out against the disease theory of alcoholism and addiction and the 12-step program, Stanton Peele recalls the time he was hired as a forensic expert to an attorney for a successful physician in a major medical center.
The physician had been accused by his soon-to-be-ex-wife of alcoholism and was forced to enter a prominent treatment center.
There, he refused to concede that he was an alcoholic or to accept the "spiritual" 12-step program. Negative consequences followed, and he sued.
His lawyer, whom Dr. Peele describes as extremely dedicated and smart, moved for and was granted a summary judgment against the medical board. This attorney argued that it was a violation of the doctor's right of privacy for a medical board to punish him for actions which, if true, occurred in his private life and never impacted his medical practice.
Stanton Peele continues: "When I asked whether the physician wanted to sue the board or the treatment center to make this case public, he declined. Why endanger a highly successful, lucrative and satisfying medical career just to make a point?
"And this from a man who felt so strongly that his rights were being violated that he refused to simply go along with the 12-step principles he was force fed in order to preserve his license!"
Dr. Peele cites another example.
"I work with a prominent cleric, a man with connections reaching into the highest levels of government. His religious orientation of self-determination was threatened when he entered the intensive outpatient program (IOP) at Morristown Memorial Hospital, which was typically completely 12-step oriented and run by a recovering AA automaton. He described incredulously the insensitivity of this woman when a female group member reported having a glass of champagne at a wedding. The woman running the program sarcastically asked for reactions from the group, who took turns lambasting the female participant. She left crying, and never returned. Another successful outcome!
"I asked this man, a gentleman and a scholar who couldn't be more opposed to the 12-steps and this IOP on fundamental ethical grounds, whether he could communicate his feelings to those he knew in political power. He demurred. 'I have a very visible public position to maintain,' he reminded me."
Stanton Peele then tells of a woman he knows who has bravely moved from her own 12-step recovery to become a motivational interviewing (MI) and a harm reduction (HR) therapist and teacher. (These are non-12-step treatment approaches that respect personal determination and recognize continued use but seek to minimize potential dangers of this use.) She encountered a major actor who was wrestling with "recovery" issues. When Dr. Peele asked her if she mentioned her own journey and current views, she said, "No, it didn't seem appropriate to force my experience on him."
Yet this woman had previously told Dr. Peele that she fantasized about some show business figure rejecting the standard treatment programs in favor of seeking MI or HR treatment!
Dr. Stanton Peele concludes: "This, of course, reminds me of the most prominent 12-step quisling of all - James Frey. When Frey's book A Million Little Pieces was first published, he appeared with me in 2002 on a John Stossel special, "Help Me, I Can't Help Myself." There he declared AA and the 12 steps bullshit - as he did throughout his book.
"But by the time he appeared on Oprah, and was selected for her book club, there was no trace of his anti-12-step views - people who saw him with Oprah thought he was a standard recovery story. Amazingly, despite the bestsellerdom of his book, no one except Amy McCarley and I - http://www.peele.net/lib/frey.html - has ever noted this.
"So I guess America will go on for a few more decades in its perfect ignorance that AA and the 12 steps are not the only option - and often not even the preferred one."
[Dr. Stanton Peele's new book "Addiction-Proof Your Child" tackles these issues for young Americans.]
http://www.addictionproofyourchild.com
Enquiries: Dr. Stanton Peele
E-mail: Stanton@peele.net
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