Outgrowing Addiction: With Common Sense Instead of "Disease" Therapy

Drug overdoses continue to rise at an alarming rate throughout the U.S., resulting in 72,000 deaths last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The response, tragically, has been to charge full-speed ahead with “solutions” that have already, and consistently, failed.

In Overcoming Addiction, Stanton Peele, a prominent addiction expert, and Zach Rhoads, a child behavior interventionist and counselor, show that defining addiction as a “disease” makes recovery much more difficult, and that twelve-step programs fail for most participants. But they don’t just criticize. They provide a solid, research-and-experience-based alternative approach that has proven to be successful in overcoming the scourges of suicide, depression, addiction, and drug-related deaths.

The authors show that maturing out of addiction and childhood behavioral problems is a normal process—unless people are sidetracked by the widespread and commonplace therapies that undercut natural growth and self-confidence.

They present extensive research data about natural recovery and case studies of fully recovered adults and of children with various conditions, for a developmental model of addiction that has been proven to help those who are suffering. Much of the focus is on childhood addiction, but their conclusions and methods are helpful for people of all ages. Their work forms the basis for the Life Process Program, a worldwide online parenting and addiction coaching service.

Stanton Peele, PhD, JD, is an addiction expert who has investigated, written about, and treated addiction over five decades. Based on this work, he was recognized in The Atlantic as one of “10 people who are revolutionizing how we study addiction and recovery.”

In the course of his life’s work, Stanton has identified that addiction isn’t limited to drugs, leading to the concept of process addictions. He was among the first to describe natural recovery and its anchorings in life through work, marriage, and family. Along with his 12 previous books and 250 academic and popular articles, he has created the Life Process Program, developed for a successful residential rehab center, the online version of which is now used around the world. Zach works with the online LPP and has expanded it into the family realm.

Stanton Peele’s main website is at: https://peele.net/.

Zach Rhoads is a consultant for families and children. In this role, Zach has demonstrated a gift for communicating with kids who are having difficulties—along with families and teachers who are stymied by their failures to reach these children. Zach developed this empathy through his own problems as a child who wasn’t successful at school and for whom standard diagnoses and
treatment weren’t helpful. Moreover, in his twenties he developed a heroin addiction, which—after several years and a near-death experience—he left behind.

Zach is a Life Process Program coach and developer. Stanton has three adult children, all of whom are engaged in meaningful, creative professional passions and strong intimate relationships. He spends creative time with his three grandchildren, including taking them on trips and other adventures. Zach (who is 40 years younger than Stanton) is married and is part of a highly supportive family network, to which he and his wife have recently added another member, a daughter, as this book was completed.