Are You Waiting for Someone or Something to Fix You?
In the fall of 1989, I was lost. I had left college at Thanksgiving never to return. I felt completely alone and broken. Looking back I can't really point to any specific event that led to my full mental breakdown, I only remember how I felt and what I was thinking. I...
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Are You Waiting for Someone or Something to Fix You?
In the fall of 1989, I was lost. I had left college at Thanksgiving never to return. I felt completely alone and broken. Looking back I can't really point to any specific event that led to my full mental breakdown, I only remember how I felt and what I was thinking. I...
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Warrior2Warrior and The Saint Jude Retreats Partnership
A Partnership to Solve Addiction Issues in the Special Ops and General Military CommunityAddiction.PTSD.Trauma.Suicide.Domestic Violence.Loneliness.The feelings of loss of relevance.These are just some of the struggles active and retired military special operators...
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Stop Saying Trauma Causes Addiction!
I'm 51 years old and it occurred to me today that no one gets to 51 years old without having experienced trauma. No one. We all have one very important thing in common; we're all going to die. I'm not saying that to be negative or shocking, I'm saying it because it's...
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Replacing a Drug Habit vs. Moving on from One
Many years ago, we promoted the idea of replacing an addiction with other more beneficial activities and positive goals as a method to help people steer clear of “relapse” and move on from addiction. We actually had a chapter in our earlier Freedom Model Program...
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The Choice That Saved My Life
I was a heroin addict. One choice changed my life. It wasn’t the choice to quit. When things got really bad, I knew I had to quit heroin. I knew I should quit heroin. I even wanted to quit heroin. So I made the choice to quit using heroin and went for treatment.But I...
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Why Do I get Drunk? It Doesn’t Make Me Happy Anymore
Humans are motivated by the pursuit of happiness - always. This is true even in the realm of addiction. In The Freedom Model we call this concrete truth The Positive Drive Principle (PDP).When I’m teaching The Freedom Model to a student who is struggling with their...
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Stop the Insanity! Addiction is NOT a Disease!
Have you ever wondered why the idea of “addiction as a disease” only includes behaviors and habits that society deems as negative or harmful? Habitual activities that are positive or neutral would never be labeled a disease. Driving a car is a habit which most adults...
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New Study Confirms That Disease Model Of Addiction Is Disempowering
We’ve been told for several decades that the disease model of addiction would help people to stop blaming themselves for their substance use problems,provide hope, and motivate them to seek help. It’s supposed to be an empowering message. A new study from researchers...
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There is No Such Thing as Denial in Addiction: It’s All About Control
Whether you have had a personal experience with a substance use problem or not, you have likely heard the term denial used to describe someone who uses substances heavily, but tells others they don’t have a problem. Maybe you have a friend or family member you feel...
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The Truth About Addiction: A Message to Parents
Every day I talk to parents of heavy substance users. I hear a range of emotions from fear to anger to concern to intense love. Many parents don't entirely buy into the idea that their adult child is suffering from a disease that makes them use substances, but many of...
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How Does A Freedom Model Presenter Help A Retreat Guest Facilitate Change?
Human change is an unavoidable human experience. At its core, it’s a completely personal autonomous experience. Being that this reality is concrete, one must ask – what then is the role of a Freedom Model Presenter (or any teacher) if all change that occurs with their...
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Approaching Someone You Love About a Substance Use Problem
In 1989, my father and sister had a talk with me because they were concerned that I had an alcohol and drug problem. This was before the show Intervention became a big hit on A&E, but at a time when addiction treatment was taking off in this country. I'll admit I...
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Non 12 Step- What Is It?
Non 12 Step – What Does this Mean? 30 years ago, I had just matriculated out of a long term intensive outpatient program that I was mandated to attend as a result of a DUI I had gotten 18 months prior. This treatment experience was so profoundly disappointing and...
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Loving Someone “In Recovery”
When you send your spouse or significant other to rehab, you're hoping that the end results will be a happier loved one and an improved relationship, but more often than not, that's not the case at all. The reality is once someone gets treatment for addiction...
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Are You Ready To Move Past Recovery?
When most “addicts” or “alcoholics” make the decision to quit or moderate their substance usage, they usually define their newly minted selves as “a person in recovery.” Of course recovery can mean all kinds of things in Western culture. But in the case of the...
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What Kayne West SHOULD HAVE Said Instead
We all saw it. We all heard it. The headlines in early May of 2018, “Kayne West proclaimed that slavery was a choice during an interview at the TMZ Headquarters.” If you’ve ever seen the gif of the blonde hair, blue-eyed guy blinking, that is the perfect depiction of...
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Dear Worried Mom: There’s Always Hope For Your Addicted Child
Dear Worried Mom, Let me start this letter by saying I know how scared you are. I know how confused you are. I’m a parent of 3, and at one time I was a very troubled teen who was emotionally lost, very depressed, drank and drugged heavily, and struggled to understand...
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All Addiction Help Should be Completely Private and Here’s Why: Drawbacks of Group Therapy and Support Group Meetings for Addictions
Since coming onto the scene in the 1930's, the group Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has shaped the way people with substance use problems are helped. AA had its roots in a fundamentalist Christian organization, The Oxford Group. The 12 steps were directives to a religious...
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Medication Assisted Therapy (MAT) Hasn’t Resulted in Less Overdoses
Suboxone has been widely adopted, yet overdose deaths have still increased Overview: Simply put, there are now far more people on the Medication Assisted Treatments methadone and buprenorphine (brand name Suboxone) than ever before, and more...
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Can “Addicts” and “Alcoholics” Solve Their Addiction at Home?
Over the past 84 years (since the founding of the first 12 step cult, Alcoholics Anonymous), people who struggle with addictions have been told they must attend a rehab, or at the very least they must attend daily support meetings to get past their struggles with...
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Costly Habits Are Chosen Habits Still
The Positive Drive Principle (PDP): the principle that humans will always act to move in the direction where they perceive the greatest happiness. -The Freedom Model for Addictions, pg 142Upon hearing it for the first time, many people fundamentally understand the...
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12 Step Indoctrination Creates Addicts
"Remember that we deal with alcohol - cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us." (p.58-59, Alcoholics Anonymous) From the age of 10 years old I was told of the mysterious powers of alcohol. I was told that if I ever touched so much as a drop of...
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One Man’s Tale of Escaping the 12 Step Recovery Trap
I was a child who grew up in an AA household from as far back as I can remember. It was the seventies and early eighties, and many of my siblings and my mother were active members in various 12 step groups at the time. I, too, eventually joined the ranks with my older...
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Why Recovery Is No Different Than An Addiction
The Freedom Model for Addictions has the tagline, Escape the Treatment and Recovery Trap. It’s widely known after more than seventy years of failure, that the treatment industry is rife with scams and has abysmal success in helping people overcome addictions. Teaching...
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Do Drug Addicts Have A Choice?
Can people diagnosed with the various addictions (or Substance Use Disorders, in modern parlance) choose to change their condition? At Baldwin Research Institute, we’ve been saying they can choose to change for 30 years now. But the addiction treatment and recovery...
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Calling Addiction a Disease Does Not Reduce Stigma
There is a lot of talk about stigma with respect to addiction. Those who promote that addiction is a disease claim that calling it a disease reduces the stigma. Their theory is that reducing the stigma will lead to more people seeking help, but does calling it a...
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Addiction is NOT a Family Disease!
Substance use problems (addiction) have been thought of as a family issue for years. Is addiction a family disease?
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You Choose Your Addictions and You Can Choose Freedom
“Try to do something without thinking about doing it first.” That was the first lesson given to me by my soon-to be mentor when I was 19 years old. At the time I was a seriously lonely, depressed and misguided young man in search of answers to why I was so unhappy. I...
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Ready To Get Off Suboxone? Read This!
Understanding The MAT Trap Here is an email I recently received that sums up the confusion and disillusion felt by so many people who've been led to believe that medications will solve their opioid use problems: "I want off suboxone. Now. It's horrible. I tried once...
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Parents – Don’t be Afraid of Moderation
Let’s be straight here, when it comes to addiction, the idea of being able to moderate substance use downright scares people, especially those in treatment circles and families who have been exposed to the treatment industry. As a culture, we’ve taken on the idea that...
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Residential Retreat vs. Inpatient Treatment: What’s the difference?
The first residential retreat for those with drug and alcohol problems was founded 30 years ago in Hagaman, NY. I know about it because I founded it. That was the beginning of The Freedom Model Retreats. For years people tried to pigeonhole our new model – the first...
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How Do Expectations Shape Our Outlook On Addiction?
Drug and Alcohol Addicts, Drug and Alcohol Treatment, Drug and Alcohol Halfway Houses, Drug and Alcohol Sober Living Houses, Alcoholics Anonymous; what do these five items have in common? They all set the users’ expectation to be eternally powerless. Erickson's Law of...
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Can You Prevent Addiction?
Can you prevent addiction? This question can mean two different things: Can an individual prevent themselves from going down a path to addiction? Can a parent or sibling prevent a loved one or a friend from becoming addicted? The answer to the first situation is yes –...
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Nobody Needs Treatment
One of the most exciting facts about addiction and our ability to move past it goes unreported – more than 90% of those with a drug or alcohol problem will get over their problem when you factor in age. In other words, as we grow older, it is normal to let go of heavy...
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7 Compelling Reasons Not to Send Your Adolescent to Drug Rehab
Your son got caught at school with pot. Your daughter came home last weekend completely wasted. You just learned your son has been using his friend's Adderall. Your daughter stole your pain medications from your medicine cabinet. Learning that your adolescent is...
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What is the Most Addictive Drug?
Let me hit this head on – no drug is addictive, not even the poster child for this myth – heroin. That is not to say that people do not feel addicted to drugs. That is not to say that people do not get physical withdrawal when they stop using certain substances such...
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Is Relapse a Part of Recovery?
Is relapse a part of recovery? The answer to this question is – absolutely, relapse is a part of recovery, and also - absolutely relapse is not a part of recovery. How can it be both you ask? The term relapse implies a disease exists in regards to addiction, when in...
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What is Perpetual Recovery?
We’ve written about perpetual recovery throughout the years in various different ways and it always seems resonates with people once they understand what is meant by this term. The differences between The Freedom Model vs. The Treatment Model are clear in so many...
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Support Systems for Addictions: Are They Good or Bad?
There is a common idea that has been promoted over the past 70 years that people who struggle with addiction will do better if they have a support system of some kind. It might be a family that supports sobriety, a work environment that supports abstinence, or...
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Addiction: The Catch All Term
The term addiction has developed into a term that has no meaning; not because it’s inherently meaningless, but rather, because it has so many definitions therefore making it meaningless. Words matter. And in the realm of substance use, they really matter because lives...
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Why Labeling Addicts and Alcoholics is Harmful
I’m sure you’ve probably heard the phrase, “I’m so and so, and I’m an Alcoholic” or “ I’m so and so and I’m an Addict” This idea of referring to one’s self as an alcoholic or addict is the standard in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and a...
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Are Drug Addicts and Alcoholics Truly Powerless?
Do you believe that it is helpful to tell another person that they are powerless to solve their problem? Consider that oncologists typically don’t tell their cancer patients that they are powerless over their cancer. Cardiologists do not tell their patients that...
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A Guide for Personal Change
Treatment for addiction (excluding medical detox) is completely unnecessary. That is a bold statement, but it’s true. Drinking and drug taking have remained a stable aspect of the human condition for thousands of years, as have stopping and moderating substance use....
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Keeping the Holidays Happy with a Heavy Substance User in the Family
The holidays are here again and you realize that for your family not much has changed over the past few years. Last year you had a get together a couple weeks before Christmas, and you were so happy because all four of your children were home for the first time in...
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Who Should Get Credit When You Stop Drinking or Using Drugs?
When criticizing 12 Step groups and treatment based on it, people will often tell me that they know it works because someone they know got sober in AA. I don't doubt their experience as I, too, know people who still attend meetings and have maintained decades of...
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A Parent’s Guide to Loving a Drug Addicted Child
In 2014, just as the air was getting cooler and the world was painted white, a dear friend lost her nephew to a drug overdose. It was a tragedy for the family and their small community, but what happened in its wake was truly unspeakable. Friends were around for the...
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The Incredibly High Cost of Alcoholics Anonymous
When you feel as if you have a drinking or drug problem, most people will tell you to go to a meeting. They say AA is free and it works. When you go to your first AA meeting, it is likely you've already heard a lot about it. Friends, family, doctors and mental health...
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Addiction Counselors, Are they at Higher Risk of becoming Addicted Again?
Important Note to the reader: The counselors we are discussing here in this article are those who were once “addicts” themselves and are now “in recovery” through conventional disease-based treatment. We are not discussing a counselor who never had a substance use...
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The Scary World of Addiction Treatment
Ghosts and ghouls, witches and jack o' lanterns, and all sorts of scary creatures abound; it's Halloween! These creatures can't hurt you because they only exist in myth and legend, and in our imaginations. But there are myths and legends that have created monsters...
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Are Meetings Necessary After You Go To Rehab?
The answer to whether someone needs support meetings such as AA or NA after rehab is not as easy as saying yes or no. It all comes down to what you are taught in rehab and how much of it you believe to be true. The need for support meetings arises out of the idea that...
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