Hello All
Any one else disappointed by Stanton Peales recent hack job on TSM on Alternet? I was really surprised by the one sided put down of the treatment that has really helped me. I was also surprised. From my perspective he has had a lot of good ideas about addiction over the years. It seemed really defensive and poorly documented. I want to respect the guy and see him as a resource for me, but after that article I don't know what to think. Just interested to see if anyone else saw it, and what your thoughts are.

Regards and well wishes

jrh

That was quite the short-sighted hatchet job on Peele's part!

Oh well. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you.

Then you win.

I had not seen that (April 11th):

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/radiolab-discovers-addiction-cure-not

Hack-job indeed! Not sure what his angle is here as there has to be one. It seemed extremely poorly researched and then portrayed with a hugely skewed bent. In one sense I've had some respect for a lot of Stanton Peele's ideas. On the other hand I listened to Stanton says this and that from my mother for nearly 20 years while she did nothing about her drinking causing havoc in our family. I'm not convinced Peele has done much of anything for true AUD sufferers, but tell them what not to do. Now she too is on TSM at 75y/o and for the first time ever feels at ease with alcohol-namely that she doesn't have to drink it compulsively and no longer fears 'acting out' when she does.

Send Stanton Peele your thoughts as I did.

stanton@peele.net

Yes, mystifying to be sure.

I have read his books, and he has great ideas that helped me muchly

TSM works great as a tool. Does it really fix the issue without changing your mindset through things like mindfulness, finding alternative behavior to replace alcohol, etc ?

To change behavior regarding alcohol, you must actually change the behavior, which means drinking less, not getting drunk, etc.

Stanton didn't really allude to any of that, which is a shame.

From what I have just read about Stanton Peele it seems obvious to me that he is stuck in the old school 'alcoholism is a personal weakness' rather than a disease that can be treated. Even in the face of staggering failure he still supports abstinence based methods and non-disease methods of alcoholism. So yeah go ahead buddy and keep trying to pound that square peg into the round hole. Meanwhile the rest of us will leave you and your draconian methods behind and move on.

It does suck to be wrong all the time especially when it cuts into your bottom line of selling books and speaking fee's and consultations trying to convince people that only reason why they drink is due to moral weakness which can be corrected.

As a broad understanding he doesn't subscribe to the disease model or something I'm more comfortable with even a biological abnormality. He instead focus' on the nature of addiction and a retraining of the brain through environment, activities and arguably some CBT. So, for someone like me it seems like there is no distinct treatment or viable path.

Also, he is an advocate of returning thereafter to normal drinking in many circumstances which frankly I find unrealistic for a lot if not most.

Thanks for all the thoughts.

I can be cynical on occasion,I realize, but I still can't help but wonder if TSM threatens Stantons "industry". I mean, being able to take a medication that slowly extinguishes the compulsiveness by itself, without any mumbo-jumbo or voodoo or lengthy and expensive therapy, is not exactly a path to relevance or riches. Pretty boring, but it sure does work. I'm sure that like me, you have all peered over the edge and didn't like what you saw. Also like me, I'm sure everyone can now stay well back from that edge, never to visit again. What's wrong with that? Maybe if it could be re-named Stantrexone he could buy into it.

Not cynical at all. I know there are lots of conspiracy theories on all kinds of things out there especially in the pharma industry but when you come right on down to it the medical industry is just that, and industry, and all industry has their bottom lines and their share holders that must be pleased at all cost. Call it the dark side of capitalism if you must. But the addiction treatment branch of the health care industry is a multi billion dollar a year industry that is very threatened by this 'one little pill.' and for a good reason. Even estimating conservatively if Naltrexone and TSM became a primary treatment for alcoholism tomorrow it would reduce their industry in half.

I don't know whether or not the industry is actively trying to squash TSM from the main stream but they sure do find it easy to ridicule it and make it look like nothing more then snake oil. But the word is getting around and like Sinclair said in his book it took doctors 20 years to finally accept the polio vaccination and look where that got us today.

Remember, too that 20% of people bye 80% of the booze (AUD sufferers) so the alcohol lobby has everything to lose.