7 Tools to Beat Addiction: A New Path to Recovery from Addictions of Any Kind: Smoking, Alcohol, Food, Drugs, Gambling, Sex, Love

I've binge eaten for decades. This addiction has been an albatross around my neck all my adult life. I quit a 2-pack-a-day smoking habit 25 years ago and quitting smoking was nothing compared to trying to quit binge eating. Bingeing has kept me from living my life fully and has comprised my health. I've spent much of my life feeling like a member of the 'living dead.' I've tried every type of therapy, diet, you-name-it, including Overeaters Anonymous to stop this self-destructive behavior. I loved the camaraderie of OA and being around people who really got how difficult it is to stop bingeing. It's not a matter of 'just stop eating so much.' I didn't care for the 'powerless' part of OA or the idea that eating disorders are a 'disease.' Some people I met there go to meetings every single day. To me, that felt like substituting one type of imprisonment for another. Besides, many of the people I met at OA were still bingeing regularly and had experienced little success in beating their addictions. I stopped going. I would consider going there again to speak with others who understand what it means to have an eating disorder, but not because I have any faith in their methods. I'm a spiritual person with a strong faith in God but the OA message did not resonate with me. 'Hand my disease over to my higher power? Make amends for all the wrongs I've committed?' Why should I make amends? I know I'm not perfect, but neither is any other human being on the planet. I see no sense in spending time focusing on everything I've done wrong in my life. I have always tried to behave in an ethical and loving way toward my fellow man. I've fallen short, but I'ved tried to learn from my mistakes and I've done my best. I have not binged every single day of my life and have gone a maximum of four months without bingeing, so how could it be a disease? A diabetic can't say 'well today, I'm not going to be diabetic.' Now that's a disease, an honest-to-God medical condition. If I can eat normally even for a single day, I can choose to do it again - and again. I've been on an especially long, tough bender for several months, so I sought out some ideas to help me stop. I love this book. It reminded me of what I knew before and forgot - that it's up to me to stop bingeing. No support group, therapist, family member, etc. can stop me as I'm poised to start wolfing food down. It's up to me at that moment to say 'no' to the urge. To be reminded of how infantile and childish it is to give into my self-destructive urges has shaken me out of my addiction rut. This book was a gentle slap in the face. It has re-awoken me to the reality that I have a choice to binge or not binge. It's up to me. That makes me feel empowered.

As I mention on the book's jacket, this is an amazing work by an amazing man. The fact that the recommendations inside do not work for every single person IS THE POINT! Just as Dr. Peele emphasizes that many of the current therapies jammed down people's throats today are clearly not for everyone, no single recommendation inside this book should apply to every single person under every circumstance. Nevertheless, the recurring emphasis on personal values is not only the key to recovery, it's the key to a fulfilling life. If the thought of incessent meetings and a spiritual path that is inconsistent with your beliefs sounds like it's not going to work for you, JOIN THE CLUB! You'll find this book insightful, refreshing, and practical. If you're already living a life consistent with your values while enjoying connection to a popular fellowship, ENJOY IT! I assure you that you'll have Dr. Peele's blessing. But don't pretend that your path is the only path...

The best book I've read on the topic of addiction. It cuts through all the misinformation on the subject and in clear and easy to understand language it explains how and why people become addicted and gives practical steps on how to get past it by using a combination of the 7 tools. This book is perfect for someone who feels trapped in the maze of an addicton, has tried 12 Step and other programs, sincerely wants to stop, and still can't find their way out of it. Stanton Peele explains how to cure an addiction and get on with your life.

7 Tools to Beat Addiction is an excellent resource for those addicted to alcohol or other substances and want to enrich their lives while reducing or eliminating their alcohol intake. 7 Tools is much like The Truth About Addiction and Recovery, also by Peele. 7 Tools is a bit of a condensed version of the aforementioned Truth About Addiction. Nevertheless, if you read both books, you will gain information from both books. If you are feeling as if you are suffering and might not be able to focus on the more scholarly Truth About Addiction, then definitely pick up this book. You will be educated about the addiction process, about the pseudo-science that has pushed the disease model, and you will be given the tools you need to moderate your drinking or quit your drinking altogether. Stanton Peele's research isn't based on feeling, like the AA model of alcoholism-as-a-disease. It's based on numerous studies by many different scientists done over the past several decades that have drawn the same conclusion OVER and OVER again. And, the conclusion is that it's NOT a disease-- despite the AMA and despite AA and despite every single organization that says it is. The proof lies in this point-- that there hasn't been even ONE successful study that has proven otherwise-- even when the study was created to PROVE that alcohol dependence was a disease. AA ADMITS in it's own data that only 5% of AA members remain alcohol abstinent. The data that has been proven over and over again is that this number is LESS than those that quit drinking without AA. Additionally, a recent Harvard University Study stated that 80% of those that have quit drinking did it on their own. This goes against the disease model and AA approach. Many can moderate their drinking successfully or quit successfully altogether. This goes against the disease model and AA approach, too. Stanton Peele's book shows us the studies and data that support that once addicted DOES NOT MEAN ALWAYS ADDICTED. Unless, of course, one has bought into the AA philosophy and has now accepted that they are permanently sick and out of control. This is the crux of this argument. Studies have shown that those that have bought into this philosophy wind up having a lower self-image than those that have not, and they wind up believing they are permanently sick and completely unable to manage their lives-- thereby buying into the belief that they are "out of control". The focus is never about getting better in AA (I know they say otherwise)-- the focus is on STAYING 'sick', STAYING in AA, and STAYING permanently in a "RECOVERY" state. The focus, truthfully, is in keeping old folkwisdom alive even though every bit of evidence shows us that there are proven better ways. To add insult to injury, anyone who doubts this model is accused of being in denial, and everyone who remains alcohol abstinent without AA is accused of being a dry drunk (not "sober" according to AAspeak. Hello? Isn't this supposed to

"7 Tools to Beat Addiction," by Dr. Stanton Peel "As a clinician with a background in substance use treatment, I am always on the look-out for a good non-12-step bibliotherapeutic resource on compulsive-addictive disorders to share with my clients. However, I have long discovered not to trust my own opinion of the book's potential utility to the client and have been relying on a strategy of loaning a book to a few clients as a simple "field test" of its face validity as a didactic supplement to treatment, with an explicit permission to use highlight and underline the salient passages as a means of feedback to myself about what parts of the book "really click" with the clients. Over the past couple of months I have had a chance to "pilot" Dr. Stanton Peele's recent book with a harmonious title of "7 Tools to Beat Addiction" on several clients of mine. The results are in. The pages that seem to have gotten client-readers' attention (highlighting, underlining, and in-session processing) are from the parts of the book devoted to a head-on challenge to the disease model of addiction. Dr. Peele, a long-standing counter-force to the disease model of addiction, effectively and with clarity deconstructs the disease assumptions, helping a prospective client reader to examine his or her belief structure that stands in the way of recovery. Dr. Peele succeeded in the challenging task of abbreviating the complex key points of his paradigm-breaking title "Diseasing of America" and presenting them to the client-reader in a tactful and easy to understand manner. In doing so, Dr. Peele presents important historical and sociological data as well as clinical and endearing family case-vignettes (see the story of Uncle Ozzie) about the phenomenon of self-change. From the in-session processing of my clients' impressions of Dr. Peele's book, I have also learned that the clients particularly appreciated the humanizing, validating, non-judgmental stance of Dr. Peele's writing, which is best captured in the chapter on the "Higher Goals: Pursuing and Accomplishing Things of Value." The chapter makes a powerful logotherapeutic point that recovery in of itself is not the goal but a means to a goal, a means to a higher meaning. As often is the case with Dr. Peele's writing, this book too, aside from its self-help focus, makes a broader sociological appeal to the society at large. In particular, in discussing the limitations of the war on drugs and the proliferation of the legal drug addiction, Dr. Peele encourages the reader as well as the society at large to embrace personal responsibility, rather than to continue to turn the Western cultural landscape into one nation-wide realm of "people-places-things" to avoid. With a characteristic clinical courage and common sense, Dr. Peele openly discusses the issues of moderation and harm reduction, entrusting the potential client-readers with an ability to responsibly process and weigh this information. A