Problem Drinking

For some individuals, alcohol use results in more pain than pleasure, yet they continue to drink. It is not that they don't realize they have a problem, it is that solving this problem is trickier than most people realize. Most problem drinkers have tried to control their alcohol use but despite short-term success the outcome of the vast majority of these efforts is relapse.

Because alcohol can provide immediate pleasure or relief from suffering, it is corruptive. Problem drinkers trade what is truly precious [health, wealth, or family] to get the payoff drinking delivers. The price of this payoff is dear, and once caught in this corruptive trap it is deceptively difficult to escape. The long-term outcome statistics for people your age with a drinking problem are worse than you think.

This web site is dedicated to the small segment of the population of problem drinkers known as AVIS (Addicted, Verbal, Intelligent, Self-directed). These individuals have the best chance of achieving good long-term outcome. Most treatment for problem drinkers are based on the disease model and the 12-Step approach of Alcoholics Anonymous. While this is an excellent approach for many chemically dependent individuals, it is not well matched to the personal attributes of many AVIS individuals. In some cases a treatment model focused on getting the patients to admit they have a disease over which they powerless can do more harm than good.

An alternative approach is presented in a free online course. Included are text summaries of pertinent research in cognitive and neural sciences and several Trance Formation audio files. The research reviews are for your rational, problem-solving mind; other media offer invitations to experience personal phenomena directly and are designed for your experiential, unconscious mind. To check out this course to see if it is well matched with your attributes, or to begin the passage please click here.

The author is a licensed psychologist who has accompanied many individuals through this passage from alcohol dependence to self-determination over the past 30 years.

"To be 'cured' against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will."