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This site is for those seeking drug help or alcohol help.  It was developed as an AA, NA and treatment alternative to current addiction recovery programs. It views drug and alcohol addiction as a choice, not a disease.
 
My goal is to challenge your view of alcohol and drug use. My hope? To replace the fear of "a disease" with the empowerment of choice.
 
If you choose to continue using, it will not be because you are diseased or lack the ability or knowledge to succeed but rather because you have not been convinced you can successfully live life without the use of alcohol or drugs. Keep trying.
 
Change will occur not out of fear of some insidious and progressive disease, but because you are alive and realize you have every innate ability to succeed and be happy and free from alcohol or drugs. With the proper information I believe this is possible.
 
The "Forgotten Five Steps" Workbook  presents motivational and practical tools for "recovery" that pull upon the alcoholic or addict's own strengths when they seek drug alcohol help.
 
AA, NA and treatment can be beneficial for some seeking drug or alcoholism help. However, I have met many alcohol or drug users who just couldn't make it work through NA or AA. They believed in a different philosophy or life course. They wanted more than what was offered through traditional treatment programs.
 
When you decide to seek out drug or alcoholism help you may experience vulnerability inside. You have for so long denied your true self. You have relied on drugs and alcohol to get you through life.
 
Now that you are thinking of eliminating drugs or alcohol from your life, you may feel defenseless or empty inside. You may not know who you are. You will be looking for any shred of meaning or cure to lesson the loneliness and despair inside.
 
Be careful what you grab. It has to be yours and relevant to your life. In the end, remember, the alcohol or drug user has to believe their life will be improved by stopping their addictive behavior or no change will occur.
 
 
 
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See all the alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous or AA.
 
 
 

Addiction Is A Choice

Frontiers Addiction Recovery  
Obtaining dreams of tomorrow, by believing in you today. You are more than your addiction!
 
Addiction Is A Choice, Addiction Is Not A Disease 
 
Why Rock The Boat?
An alternative approach to quit drinking and alcohol abuse

Some have asked why I feel it important to put a site and a Quit drinking addiction workbook out that is in direct opposition to what is currently believed in the alcohol abuse treatment field. Some may feel if people don't believe alcohol abuse is a disease they won't get help when they decide to quit drinking alcohol. Why not just go with the status quo? Isn’t the alcohol abuse system we currently have sufficient enough to deal with the problems that occur when someone decides to quit drinking alcohol?

I do not agree. Currently, when people decide to quit drinking and go to AA the retention rates of AA have been shown to be around 5%-10%. In alcohol abuse treatment many counselors will give you about a 10% to 30% success rate to be successful to quit drinking alcohol. Some would argue that the reason for these poor results is due to the disease itself: that the disease of alcohol abuse is difficult to overcome, there is denial, or the person has not hit bottom yet to be motivated enough to change and quit drinking alcohol. They would argue for more in depth alcohol abuse treatment, more consequences, and tighter controls for those who choose to quit drinking alcohol.

Yet, Project MATCH showed that alcohol abuse treatment obtained the greatest results for people to quit drinking alcohol when it was brief, motivational, and individualized. In fact brief interventions get as good or better results than the current alcohol abuse treatment practices when one decides to quit drinking alcohol.

Finally, of those people who quit drinking and succeed in AA or treatment, it has been shown that the majority were already motivated to change when they decided to quit drinking alcohol. In other words, motivation to quit drinking alcohol is more important than the actual alcohol abuse programs or counseling techniques used to help someone quit drinking alcohol.

I have been asked if I thought that taking away the disease of alcohol abuse would only encourage people to drink again once they decided to quit drinking alcohol. That the alcohol abuse disease concept is needed to let people know they cannot keep using alcohol and if they don't quit drinking they will face death. This is a fear tactic and it does not work for most when they decide to quit drinking alcohol. If it did, our current alcohol abuse treatment system would not lose or exclude the majority of those who seek to quit drinking alcohol.

Do people need to fear to remain sober and quit drinking alcohol? Some would argue, “yes”. Talk to a current alcohol abuse outpatient program and they will tell you the majority of their clients remain sober for six months to a year after they quit drinking alcohol. Most of these clients are court ordered to quit drinking alcohol and to attend alcohol abuse treatment and would rather attend therapy than sit in jail.

But what about long term change? Recidivism is high after someone decides to quit drinking alcohol, and alcohol relapse is accepted. What does this say about effectiveness of alcohol abuse treatment?

Current alcohol abuse treatment is not working for those that decide to quit drinking alcohol. The majority of those who quit drinking alcohol, quit drinking alcohol on their own. They did not give up their will to a disease, but took personal responsibility for their behavior when they decided to quit drinking alcohol.

But, what about those who are finding it difficult to quit drinking alcohol? I do not believe that because some cannot or will not quit drinking alcohol that it must be a disease. The purpose of the disease concept in my oppinion is to justify behavior we cannot understand. I would venture that some professionals in the field of alcohol abuse would agree. Why do I say this? Because, moral inventories, amends, character defects, and different clinical therapies would be silly when someone decides to quit drinking if alcohol addiction was purely a disease. Making amends or exploring childhood resentments would do little to eliminate something like cancer. What would be more effective is to teach the person who wants to quit drinking alcohol the power of choice and empowerment in choosing coping responses to lead a more fulfilled life.

So, my goal is to offer an alternative view of alcohol abuse for those who want to quit drinking. I would like to replace the fear of disease with the empowerment of choice. If someone chooses to not quit drinking alcohol, it will not be because they are diseased, but because they have not been convinced they can successfully live life if they quit drinking alcohol. 
 
You can read more on "The Forgotten Five Steps" addiction workbook.
Addiction Is A Choice, Addiction Is Not A Disease
 

THE ALCOHOL ABUSE & ADDICTION OPTION

Addiction is a choice
 
Webster defines option as: “The act of choosing: a choice. It is the power, right or liberty of choosing.” It is free and always available.

The options one chooses in life depend not so much on the actual presenting situation, but on the perceived value a particular option will have on resolving this presenting situation. When one chooses the option to repeatedly use alcohol  we call this alcohol abuse or addiction.

This option for alcohol abuse or addiction represents an attempt by the person to resolve a stressful, helpless, or fearful situation. It is an attempt to reassert their control or will to a perceived uncontrollable situation. The situation is perceived as uncontrollable because it presents the person with a scenario of emotions that they believe cannot be handled without the use of alcohol or their addiction. 

Alcohol abuse or addiction helps resolve these emotional issues by doing two things:
1) It allows the alcoholic to regain a sense of control of these emotions through alcohol abuse.
2) It gives the alcoholic the illusion of a temporary fix or resolution to these negative emotional experiences through alcohol abuse.

The alcoholic perceives the value of alcohol abuse as superior to the experience of their current emotional state of helplessness or fear. The reality is that this attempt to control the emotional experience further isolates the alcoholic from successful resolution of the presenting problem or experience. Through time the repeated option to drink becomes so familiar that deviation from it adds to the anxiety and feelings of helplessness and fear. Predictability and safety in an alcoholics alcohol use is the key.

No matter what the emotional state, the alcoholic can routinely reassert their will and control through the use of alcohol, even while acknowledging the destructive influence of their use. Again, the value of alcohol abuse is perceived as superior to their current emotional state of helplessness and fear.

So the option for alcohol abuse can present a realistic solution to a current emotional conflict, but that does not imply the choice to “not use” is unavailable.

Just as the addict has used his power, right or liberty to drink, so he can also use his power, right and liberty to change. The act of choosing has not vanished. The person maintains his power, right and liberty to choose whatever option makes sense to him and is most useful. In reality the addict asserts this freedom every time he decides to use alcohol. To remove an option, as in maintaining addiction as a disease, is to remove freedom, power, right and liberty. It is to feed into the helplessness already being experienced by the addict who compensates for this through alcohol abuse.

Option is at the root of alcohol abuse and addiction, for in an option we are allowed to use freedom, power, right or liberty to resolve conflict anyway we want to. Even if this option destroys our lives through alcohol abuse or addiction. If we combat this freedom to choose alcohol abuse or addiction, with an elimination of options (making it a disease that is responsible) we cut off the very opportunity we have to acknowledge where we need to change. We cut off our ability to see where our alcohol abuse or addiction began: In the freedom, power, right and liberty to choose how we will respond to our internal emotional experiences.
  
Addiction is a choice - Addiction is not a disease
 

There are vast amounts of information out there on the whole "addiction recovery" process in obtaining drug  or alcohol addiction help.  With this vast information, I believe, we often lose sight of what matters most. 

Alcohol and drug addiction is a painful business. Because of the pain and struggle involved we may search endlessly for the one cause or cure to end the madness.  We become afraid, and through this fear cling to any shred of evidence we can find to lift us from our state.  Is there one way to succeed in obtaining drug addiction help or alcohol addiction help? Who is right? Who is wrong?  

When it is all said and done, it does not matter which path you take when seeking drug or alcohol help.   It's your choice, your life.   Find a way.   There is hope! 

I know the potential each human has and can choose to use, if the desire is there and the right information and motivation is available. I must emphasize that I believe in the value of each person, and like myself, each must come to terms with who they are, what they desire, and their

own way of finding it.   AA, NA and treatment can be beneficial in changing ones life when seeking addiction help and for some - the only way. However, I have met many alcohol or drug users who just couldn't make it work. They believed in a different philosophy or life course.  They wanted more than what was offered. For them, their beliefs and passion had them dancing to a different tune. 

You are not a failure because you did not succeed in previous attempts at "sobriety". Look deeper. Find your passion. Raise your standards and begin to believe again...... HOPE!


If you have tried to get drug alcohol help and just can't find that peace and happiness through traditional programs, keep believing. Open your mind and heart to what is possible and know that you are not alone. There are others who struggled also, but found a way to live again.  Addiction is a choice, addiction is not a disease.

Timothy Welch     Addiction Recovery Workbook 
Addiction is a choice - Addiction is not a disease
 
 
 
Download The "Forgotten Five Steps" Workbook (pdf file)
 
For Instant Download
 
(If you cannot afford the workbook, e-mail or call 888-691-3919 and I will
e-mail it to you free.  Keep believing!)

$35.00
Addiction is a choice - Addiction is not a disease