Uncategorized – The Freedom Model For Addictions: Recent Episodes
The Freedom Model
We just released Episode 232 of The Addiction Solution Podcast, and in it, Mark and I discuss the importance of being persistent when solving substance use problems or other “addictions”. And spoiler alert; it doesn’t involve forcing yourself to be abstinent, feeling deprived, and miserable! You can watch this episode by clicking the link below: Episode 232: Solving Addiction With Persistence?
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Last week a long-time friend confided in me that she is struggling with alcohol. I have known Ann since high school, and she has always been self-confident, highly motivated, and a very high achiever. At just 60 years old, she is retiring after a lucrative 30-year career at a very prestigious company. She has every reason to be excited about her future, but is now struggling with depression and…
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Research for The Freedom Model began nearly 40 years ago in the early 1980’s. At that time the addiction disease model was spreading across the globe but was largely limited to the substance using demographic. Since then, researchers began seriously questioning the drug and alcohol disease model (and later the brain disease model), and a brave few completely debunked it and wrote about it.
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What is The New Freedom Model’s New Solution to Addiction? What is the solution to addiction? That’s a question that’s been asked for more than a century, with no clear answer – until now. The Past and Its Failed Policies and Programs We currently have more treatment, more money spent on recovery programs, and more medical resources and training on the topic of addiction than anytime in human…
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In 1989, when I began working with my research mentor, Jerry Brown, I made a promise to myself; I (we) would build a substance use model that was more effective than what was available, was accessible to anyone anywhere in the world, and would be a model that they could afford. Well, at the end of 2023 that 34 year goal was accomplished with the fulfillment of creating the entire suite of products…
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The Freedom Model Coalition What is it, and why would you want to participate? Let me start by wishing you a Happy New Year! Over the past 34 years, we have received consistent correspondence from the public asking us what they can do to help spread the word about The Freedom Model and the non-12 step, non-treatment-based method it teaches. Those asking are usually the family members or friends…
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I asked Michelle and Ryan this morning, “What should my year-end email topic be?” She said, “Do a year in review.” So we went into my office and began listing all the accomplishments of 2023 – and frankly, we were shocked! We’ve been so busy that it’s easy to get tunnel vision on each project and lose sight of the bigger picture. When we sat down and listed out the number of people helped…
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I learned how to worry when I was a young child living in a home where bad things were happening to me frequently that were completely out of my control. As a child, you are at the mercy of those around you who are older and supposed to be wiser. In much of the aggregate of my childhood, the wisdom part of that equation was missing for me and those around me. Our family was lost, rudderless…
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Whether you like it or not, as we come to the end of another year, we can’t help but assess, have I made progress? Am I ending the year in a better place than I started it, or do I have the same struggles I had last year at this time? It can be frustrating and disheartening when the answer to that last question is yes, I am still struggling with a problem I had wanted to solve. As we get older…
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You might wonder why this topic is being addressed here on The Freedom Model blog; a blog devoted to the topic of debunking addiction and recovery myths. I mean really, “what grips your soul”? The trouble with the quote above is this: if read quickly, it can seem like unwanted advice and frankly, a bit like fluffy greeting card fodder. And of course, Freedom Model students won’t put up with…
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We’ve all heard the cliché, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If you’ve spent any time at all in the addiction recovery world you’ve heard this touted as fact multiple times by people trying to convince you that you are an addict or alcoholic who clearly can’t use substances without causing massive problems in your life.
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Quote from Matthew Perry’s Memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing Actor, author, and 12-step advocate, Matthew Perry, passed away this past Saturday (October 28, 2023). While we don’t know an official cause of death yet, it is not a stretch to say that his life for the past 30 years was tragic in and of itself. You may disagree, but I’m simply taking his word for it.
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No. There you have it. The Freedom Model for Addictions is not opposed to anyone who wants to take medications for “opioid use disorder”. But with that blanket statement made, it is important to know that we are opposed to lying to the masses to make them believe that MOUD is the only way to curb opiate use. This assertion that all opiate users must use MOUD (formerly known as MAT) sounds…
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Are you a chronic relapser? Did a treatment professional or fellow AA member saddle you with this label? This idea is Nonsense, find out why!
In the US, virtually every inpatient rehab, outpatient clinic, or other form of treatment for drug use is based on the 12-step model or a strange deviation of it.
Listen to Freedom Model Chairman and Co-Founder, Mark Scheeren, as he is interviewed by Radio Host Lynn Cullen for her Radio show to discuss the Freedom Model for Addictions
“Why do you guys have to bash AA so much?” For more than 30 years I’ve heard people say this to me and my colleagues here at the Freedom Model.
For the past few years there has been a movement that began largely on social media called Dry January.
Substances are things, they are not living or magical things, and they can’t problem solve or compel us to behave in any way.
We discuss the erroneous, but common idea, that environmental and social factors cause addiction.
Learn 5 reasons why staying abstinent for a period of time may benefit you if you're looking to reduce your substance use.
There is a solution to addiction. Learn how thousands of people have resolved their addictions and moved on from troubling substance use – never to repeat the mistake again.
ATTENTION parents who have a son or daughter struggling with addiction. Addiction is not FOREVER!
Many believe heavy drinking and drugging “change the brain” making the habit impossible to stop or moderate without outside intervention or treatment.