Rational Recovery ®

If you’re going to have a higher power in your life, then choose it very carefully! However you conceive of a higher power, it will strongly influence your thoughts, your feelings, and your behavior. It will directly affect your self-concept, your identity, your character, and — yes — your soul. Most of all, your higher power will determine the course of your life, and your destiny as well.

Everyone knows how important the higher power is in human affairs, even those who energetically combat such notions. World history is authored by the higher powers of nations and their citizens, and the human condition may be caricatured as a drama with a cast of higher powers. Power itself is nothing more nor less than the triumph of a higher power!

A higher power may be for better or worse, speak truth or falsehood, or manifest good or evil. Every little choice in life is made between at least two objects of concern. The powers that vie for your submission do not fight among themselves, as ancient myth-gods once did. They engage as ideas, values, concepts, hopes and dreams that compete in in the arena of human consciousness — in your human mind, where they are heard and felt as callings for truth, deliverance, and fulfillment.

As the results of your addiction pile up against you, and your struggles against addictive desire appear more futile, you have become depressed, afraid, desperate, and hopeless. These factors add up to a condition of special vulnerability. You are a sitting duck for bad advice. Your obsession with addictive pleasures has not exactly sharpened your senses or your judgment. You may be suffering the toxic after-effects of alcohol or other drugs, plus the depression, anxious moods, and raw emotions that do little to help you make wise choices that are truly in your best interests.

Few are as powerless as an addicted person, and none is so vulnerable to exploitation than an addicted person seeking “help.” When the world is coming down on you, any friendly face may look very good. When you’re sinking in the quicksand of addiction, any warm hand held out to help feels good. That is precisely why Rational Recovery warns all addicted people to stay away from recovery groups of all kinds, and why we reject all forms of addiction treatment and counseling services that deliver new beliefs, new ideas, new philosophies, and new values, all of which contradict your native beliefs and original family values. You are vulnerable, and the help offered to you, even by your family physician, may be more harmful than addiction itself.

Priorities
Now you act against your own standards of decency, bewildered by repeated losses you clearly saw coming. Your higher power (addictive desire) has been governing your life, and it will continue to be your master until Read the rest of this entry »

I was very disappointed, actually startled, to hear the mother of Tiffany Souers call her daughter’s alleged murder, “…a very sick man.” Mrs. Souers’ naive, gentle comment demonstrates how deeply held the disease concept of evil has become since the recovery group movement injected its pernicious doctrines into mainstream thinking. It is proper to say that the suspect, Jerry Buck Inman, may be presumed innocent until proven guilty, or that he has only allegedly committed murder. A parent of a murder victim, however, would probably find it difficult to restrain a presumption of guilt, especially when he is seen to have bat tattoos on his neck, shaven head, and a lengthy record as a criminal sexual psychopath. It would be very easy, under the cloud of emotion, to make a judgment that the suspect is guilty.

Mrs. Souers seems to suspect that even if Inman is guilty of murder, he is innocent, suffering from some disease or sickness that compelled him to strangle her daughter with her bikini top. I sincerely hope that Mrs. Sours will consider that the man who killed her daughter is not only a criminal, but also an evil man. That way, she may experience the authentic horror and outrage that fits the truth of what has happened to her daughter.

I am speaking of the white-hot outrage that cries out within us when someone has maliciously caused us intolerable loss, violating our very soul. To paint an atrocity as a disease symptom, making an evil man appear to be a sick man, protects the guilty from justice and emancipates evil in society. It also prevents healing of a painful wound by using the anesthetic of denial instead of the antibiotic of anger. Anger vented will fade and dissipate, and will leave its permanent shadow over what was lost, but failure to render moral judgment of offenders results in vacant grief, a sadness that becomes an undertow of depression resulting from unexplained, unaccounted, intolerable loss.

If you want to see and hear dark undertones caused by denying authentic anger, visit an addiction recovery group, where the members have parlayed their common immorality, self-intoxication, into a disease symptom. They say anger Read the rest of this entry »

Last month, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), crashed his car during a drunken spree, adding to his long history of habitual drunkenness and substance abuse. Capitol Police extended him special treatment, due to his high office, and provided him a ride home instead of to the clink. Rep. Kennedy said he had no memory of the incident or the events surrounding it, although his memory seemed unimpaired to the police at the time of the accident.

He assured the public that he would obtain the finest treatment available for the mysterious disease of addiction, the same treatment he’s received many times since the onset of his addictive disease in 1986. He spoke of himself as a heroic figure, as someone who has struggled with addictive disease most of his life. Then, he was quickly on his way to the Mayo Clinic addiction treatment program.

Today, Mr. Kennedy was released from rehab, and at a press conference he assured the public and his constituency that his “treatment” for the disease of addiction will never be completed. He said he will remain “in recovery” for the rest of his days, diligently attending 12-step recovery group meetings in order to stave off his progressive, chronic disease. He assures us that he can never guarantee anyone that he won’t once again explode into drunkenness, and endanger the public by driving under the influence of alcohol and other drugs.

He further explained that, even with the very best medical care, cancer patients cannot guarantee that they will remain tumor-free, so neither can he guarantee that he won’t decide sometime to have a drink or take illegal drugs when conditions are perfect for a “relapse.” Very importantly, the congressman did not apologize for his substance abuse. How could he apologize for using drugs, rendering himself senseleses, when reserves for himself the privilege of relapse? Indeed, he explained that he suffers from a disease, similar in many ways to cancer, that compels Read the rest of this entry »

Brave New Science brings us wonderful new hope for drugs that combat drug addiction. Yes, we can fight drugs with drugs by waging chemical warfare on chemical dependence. The last few months have brought several new entries into the drug war on drugs. Much excitement surrounded the FDA approval of Vivitrol®. This drug works, they say, by threatening to ruin the pleasure produced by cocaine. Vivitrol® is another version of naltrexone, also introduced amid media fanfare as a wonderful new drug, Revia®, for people addicted to alcohol.

Just weeks after the Vivitrol® splash, came modafinil. It hasn’t yet acquired the little ® added by drug companies when a drug is ready for the market. Modafinil is said to repair certain brain tissues that are said to be damaged by cocaine use, tissues without which cocaine addicts experience notorious cravings. Taking modafinil, naltrexone, Revia®, and Vivitrol® are all intended to reduce the notorious cravings for alcohol and other drugs over which addicted people are said to be powerless.

Even smokers may benefit from Brave New Science. Chantix® made its debut recently, offering new hope for ciggie smokers who have not been helped by a similar drug, Zyban®, and for those unlucky smokers who have had no success using nicotine replacement therapies, i.e., patches and gums. By using Chantix®, they can all can hope to be among the lucky one in five who have not resumed smoking afterthe three month course of “treatment.”

These anti-drug drugs are advertised to (1) reduce the desire for the pleasures released by the original drugs, and to (2) reduce the amount of pleasure in the event one indulges in the original drug while attempting to discontinue the drug. Thus, a new family of anti-pleasure drugs brings new hope for addicted people everywhere, if only they will work as advertised.

We should assume that these anti-pleasure drugs work as advertised, because it is entirely possible they do. I have no doubt that biologists can tease one’s brain chemistry in such a way that pleasure is converted to disgust. For example, one drug, Antabuse®, has been used for decades to induce violent illness in its users who drink alcohol. Antabuse® works exactly as advertised, even killing some users who drink, but as a remedy for addiction, it’s worthless. Taken voluntarily, Antabuse® is essentially a self-erected barrier to a good buzz. Taken involuntarily, Antabuse® is half of a deadly poison that might impose the death penalty. Yes, Antabuse®, the brand name for disulfiram, an industrial chemical for vulcanizing rubber, is worthess. Worthless and dangerous.

Surely other anti-pleasure drugs aren’t so crude. For example, naltrexone may simply prevent drinkers from feeling the full effect of their drinks. This allows the drug to be promoted as a drug that makes it easier to stop drinking (once one has started drinking.)

Fatal Flaws of Anti-Drug Drugs
My question is this, “Why would any addicted person take an anti-drink in advance of taking a drink?” Better yet, will they? Read the rest of this entry »

What a fabulous word we have in addiction!

It is an ugly word about the dark and seamy side of life, the waste of life on bodily pleasure. Addiction is about degeneracy, violence, abuse, exploitation, crime, and death. Addiction is a dark place illuminated only by the glow of addictive pleasures, the sensate signatures of substances not found on nature’s plane.

Addiction is a comforting word for the addict, a nicer word than others that might come to his mind. Addiction confers identity upon the addict. After all, addiction is not something one does, but what one is. Once addicted, it is forever. Addict-identity runs deep; it is real. Addiction defines the addict’s life. It is his last name.

Addiction is a welcome word for the families who have lost loved ones to addiction’s grip. Addict or alcoholic is better — yes, nicer! — than ass. Addict is nicer than traitor, or thief, and all the other truthful words that have already been said in addiction’s turbulent wake. Addicts can’t help what they do. So they say.

It’s a disease, according to all higher authorities and powers that be. In other words, the only evidence of addictive disease is some higher authority, never based on biological evidence from the real world where diseases reside. Example: “My doctor says addiction is a disease, because the AMA says it’s a disease, because all the people in recovery say it’s a disease, because my cousin says it’s a disease.”

What a wonderful disease! Many say, “When I learned I have a disease, it was as if a great burden had been lifted from my shoulders.” A recovery group flyer shows an irritated man saying, “Don’t tell me I don’t have a disease!” Addicted people love the disease concept of addiction.

For doctors, professional counselors, and others who treat this mysterious disease, addiction is a gravy train. The first element in addiction treatment is saying you have addictive disease. You must say, “I am an alcoholic/addict.” If you won’t say that until you get some medical evidence that you have addictive disease, then you are in denial. Denial is a symptom of addictive disease. If you think you don’t have the disease, that proves you have it. Some disease.

Many people stay away from recovery groups because of the disease concept of addiction. ”Disease” means “psychological disease” as well as medical disease. However, they continue to act as if they are diseased, powerless over the desire to get high, and they encounter increasing problems in life. If recovery groups only made more sense, and didn’t depend upon regular attendance in order to survive, they would likely exist.

Think of it. Suppose a recovery group explained exactly how to totally recover from any addiction all at once, through planned, permanent abstinence? The only members attending the next session would be the one’s who didn’t get it the first time, or members who are unwilling to forsake their addictions. Very soon, the latter would outnumber the former, and would become a support group for addiction itself rather than an addiction recovery group.

That is what happened to the Rational Recovery Self-Help Network, disbanded long ago. Addiction gets massive support in our society. Massive! Rational Recovery does not support addiction, nor do we facilitate relationships between addicted people, nor do we harbor the Addictive Voice in groups that require repeat attendance for their own survival. To think that the survival of the individual depends upon the social support of similarly dependent people is a great folly.We believe that the survival of the individual is infinitely more important than the survival of recovery groups, and that individual survival is greatly hindered by recovery groups, so we have none of them.

The only people who are actually recovering, and not just in the moral slumber called, “in recovery,” are doing it on their own, along the general lines described in Addictive Voice Recognition Technique® (AVRT®).