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 be a quit-drinking program?

The problem AAers have is that this proof (that is shown so coherently here) completely pulls their chairs out from underneath them. I understand this, too. If everything I believed was taken away from me and proven to be false, it would certainly undermine my own confidence in my ability to make decisions. And, so far, although the twelve-step "treatment" (although why we continue to call it treatment when it hasn't successfully treated anything) philosophy has continued to permeate our culture, there is absolutely no evidence at all to suggest that it is beneficial. On the contrary. The evidence proves it hasn't been and that there are better ways that have been proven to work (for instance, Community Resource and Family Training, Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy, and Cognitive Therapy, as well as other approaches) scientifically.

"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."