7 Tools to Beat Addiction

Rating:
Summary: "7 Tools to Beat Addiction" passes the "client test."
Review: "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. And what is also important is that Dr. Peele is able to discuss these non-12-step issues with respect and tact, without alienating a prospective 12-step devotee, be it a clinician- or client-reader.



My clients have also responded well to Dr. Peele's practical and thought-provoking exercises featured throughout the book. Of particular note are such specific self-help tools for emotional self-regulation, craving control and relapse prevention. In summary, the book provides an excellent mix of discussions designed to challenge the belief structure that stands in the way of clients' recovery as well as highly pragmatic and empirically sound self-help techniques, wrapped in a humanizing and validating writing stance, surely to be appreciated by a reader pursuing a self-change or a client in the treatment context."



Pavel G. Somov, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Author of "The Recovery Equation: Motivational Enhancement/Choice Awareness/Use Prevention, an Innovative Clinical Curriculum for Substance Use Treatment."