Outgrowing Addiction: With Common Sense Instead of "Disease" Therapy

by Stanton Peele, Zach Rhoads

Drug overdoses continue to rise at an alarming rate throughout the U.S., resulting in 72,000 deaths last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The response, tragically, has been to charge full-speed ahead with "solutions" that have already, and consistently, failed.

In this book, Stanton Peele, a prominent addiction expert, and Zach Rhoads, a child behavior interventionist and counselor, show that defining addiction as a "disease" makes recovery much more difficult, and that twelve-step programs fail for most participants.

But they don't just criticize. They provide a solid, research-and-experience-based alternative approach that has proven to be successful in overcoming the scourges of suicide, depression, addiction, and drug-related deaths.

The authors show that maturing out of addiction and childhood behavioral problems is a normal process—unless people are sidetracked by the widespread and commonplace therapies that undercut natural growth and self-confidence.

They present extensive research data about natural recovery and case studies of fully recovered adults and of children with various conditions, for a developmental model of addiction that has been proven to help those who are suffering. Much of the focus is on childhood addiction, but their conclusions and methods are helpful for people of all ages.

Their work forms the basis for the Life Process Program, a worldwide online parenting and addiction coaching service.

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 1, 2019

Reviews

[Randy Helmerich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great job to both of you. I outgrew my so called addiction a while ago but I only started to talk about it in past 2 years. 12 step programs should have the same reputation as Scientology. They have killed kids who were using medications, life saving ones, but told that was not "real" sobriety. I was able to do therapy and I got the results. Substance use is not me or my life or future

[Rudolph Lambert Fernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Stanton Peele, an addiction expert, and Zach Rhoads, a consultant for families and children, in their book Outgrowing Addiction, show that the ‘disease’ model makes recovery harder, never complete, and rarely sustainable. Vital reading for those not keen on a hyper-technical/specialist read on addiction.

[Sean Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compassionate and thoughtful approach to addiction in all it's forms.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book, overall, very helpful. Some sections were very empowering and inspiring. Though, I would question, what is ‘common sense’? Who decides what this is and is not? Is ‘common sense’ in any way ‘scientific’? A key takeaway for me was that a key way to overcome addictive issues might be to simply strive for a fulfilling life.