Most Americans believe that the only way to control the devastating addiction of alcohol is total abstinence. But now those views are being challenged and the means of treatment re-examined. Alternatives to Abstinence offers an unconventional perspective on the 50 million Americans who struggle with alcohol. It raises intriguing questions: Is alcoholism a disease or a behavior? Is it possible that for some, alcoholism can be treated with moderation rather than abstinence? Are Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs the only way to sobriety? According to a growing number of researchers and others who have struggled with alcohol, the long-held views of AA and other 12-step programs are only helpful to a small segment of the population. Abstinence, these experts and recovering alcoholics say, may be the only remedy for some people, but not necessarily for others. Alternatives to Abstinence addresses the controversy surrounding controlled drinking while weighing the positive benefits of behavioral modification techniques with problem drinkers.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
A readable, informative, and balanced overview of...how problem drinkers might go about getting effective help. -- Frederick Rotgers, Psy.D., Assistant Chief Psychologist, Smithers Alcoholism Treatment and Training Center, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, NY
From the Back Cover
Over 50 Million Americans Struggle with Alcohol. Is Total Abstinence the Only Answer?
Chances are, you or someone you love has a drinking problem. Most of us think the only solution is the twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. We readily accept that alcoholism is a disease and that the only path leading to a lasting recovery is quitting cold turkey. But what if this conventional wisdom is wrong?
Now Heather Ogilvie shows that there really are Alternatives to Abstinence in this groundbreaking book. This balanced and unbiased look at our current methods for treating problem drinkers will open your eyes to a world of treatment options beyond AA.
Alternatives to Abstinence will show you:
• Why current attitudes toward alcoholism stem more from "folk" theories than from scientific evidence.
• How expanding treatment options will lead to greater overall recovery rates.
• How decades of well-established research contradict popular beliefs about the nature of alcoholism as an irreversible disease.
and give you:
• Descriptions of twelve alternative treatment options that are at least as effective as twelve-step programs.
• A comprehensive listing of public and private organizations, as well as individual therapists, specializing in alternative or traditional treatments.
Finally, Americans will be able to discuss and treat problem drinking without the misinformation that has plagued us in the past. If AA has not worked for you, there are Alternatives to Abstinence.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well-researched, dispassionate,
By
This review is from: Alternatives to Abstinence: A New Look at Alcoholism and the Choices in Treatment (Hardcover)
This relatively recent compilation of treatment methods for alcoholism is a well-researched summary of alternatives to the popular AA-style abstinence method. The book has an agenda, as will any work on this subject--Ogilvie asks why, in a world where medical treatments are increasingly being tailored to fit the individual, treatment methods for alcoholism other than complete abstinence are so controversial. A very useful resource.
49 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
ALTERNATIVES TO ABSTINENCE,
This review is from: Alternatives to Abstinence: A New Look at Alcoholism and the Choices in Treatment (Hardcover)
King Solomon was wrong. There is something new under the sun. Here we have a book on the moderate drinking vs. abstinence controversy-and it was not written by a professional controlled drinking advocate, nor by a lifetime member of the 12-Step/Alcoholism crusade. Ogilvie said that she did not have any special expertise nor any personal experience with alcohol problems until her publisher approached her about writing this book. Why the publisher, Hatherleigh Press of New York, should be so interested in a book on this subject was not explained. The book is very unlikely to be a best seller. It is known that the alcoholic beverage industry once supported the alcoholism-is-a-disease movement (because calling alcoholism a disease shifts blame and focus from the substance, alcohol, to the victims, the so-called alcoholics). It also seems to me that the industry is now quietly backing the moderation advocates. But the motivations of the publisher, whatever they may be, are totally mysterious.The book opens with a foreword by A. Thomas Hovath, PhD, a professional therapist and the President of SMART Recovery. SMART Recovery, an alternative to AA, is supposedly an abstinence program, but Hovath makes no secret of his personal and professional preferences for moderation. A decent man who believes strongly in his philosophy of behaviorism, Hovath declares: "Drinking problems do not occur as a result of a disease process. Drinking," he says, "is a learned behavior." Despite this assertion, Hovath's language is almost exclusively that of a healthcare provider. He speaks of "patients" in a "healthcare setting" giving "informed consent" to "providers" who must "honor the patient's rights." All these may all be good things, but his language undeniably shows that this problem, though it's "not a disease," is being thought of in terms that are very much like the medical establishment thinks of diseases and health issues. To the astute reader, Dr. Hovath's foreword reveals that the argument here is not really about "a disease" vs. "not a disease" but about who is going to treat this condition, by what methods, and measuring what outcome. Following Hovath, a preface is offered by Frederick Rotgers, Psy.D. The tone of Rotgers' essay is much harsher and, some might say, reflective of feelings that are alive in many treatment providers today. In Rotgers' view, those who do not agree with him are members of the "cult of abstinence only." The tenets of which, he believes, are "deeply rooted in the heritage of religious fundamentalism." From his point of view: "To be a 'recovering alcoholic'" - something he apparently is not - "is to have a special status in our society - the status of one who has taken the Devil by the horns, battled, and emerged victorious." Here again, the singular view of the treatment provider should be apparent. To be a so-called "recovering alcoholic" may grant one a "special status" in the world of professional alcohologists, but in "society," in the real world of bankers, merchants, teachers, soldiers, firemen, homemakers, bricklayers and accountants (to name but a few) a "recovering alcoholic" usually has a certain stigma, a somewhat spoiled identity. Ogilvie recites the traditional arguments of the moderationists. She revisits the nearly forty-year-old paper of D. L. Davis, purportedly revealing that a small number (seven out of 93 or about 7.5 percent) of so-called "alcohol addicts" who had been treated in a London hospital were found drinking "normally." She did not discuss a follow-up study by Griffith Edwards showing that those same "alcohol addicts," twenty years later, were mostly back in their cups. Two of the seven had engaged in "trouble free drinking" over the total period, but five had experienced continued problems with alcohol and other drugs. One had an enlarged liver, one was hospitalized for peptic ulcers, and one poor fellow fell victim to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrom, the "wet-brain" caused by too much alcohol. Ogilvie cites several other studies, a superficial reading of which gives the impression that moderate drinking is effortless and common. In fact, the studies only show that moderate drinking is sometimes possible. For thirteen studies between 1952 and 1972, where the number of participants was given, 1,879 "alcoholics" were studied and 228 (about 12 percent) showed some success in moderation. The lengths of the follow-ups ranged from one to eight years, with the most common follow-up period being only one year. The only positive thing about these data is that the numbers for AA attendees are even worse. Ogilvie cites the generally accepted figure, based on AA's own membership surveys, that 90 to 95 percent of those who begin attending AA drop out within a year. She cites Nick Heather and Ian Robinson, no friends of AA, in estimating that 25 to 50 percent of regularly attending AA members stay sober for one year. Still, it is not correct to say, as she does (quoting the Rand corporation report), that "some alcoholics can return to moderate drinking with no greater chance of relapse than if they had abstained." Here everyone's thinking has become confused, for if one abstains, one drinks no alcohol and that is that. To think otherwise is for the moderationists to take a page from the "powerless" disease theory they despise, and use it for their own benefit. What is really happening is that of the universe of "alcoholics" who are treated, only a small number chooses to abstain. A much larger number, unfortunately, chooses to try moderate or controlled drinking, and of that number a very large majority will re-experience problems associated with alcohol. Neither side, to the extent that there are sides, can take much pleasure from this phenomena. Has this book any value? Yes, but mostly as a neutral vehicle that perhaps can be used as a starting point to begin a more productive, more useful, discourse on the whole problem. Reviewed by L. Allen Ragels
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very helpful book--recommended,
By A Customer
This review is from: Alternatives to Abstinence: A New Look at Alcoholism and the Choices in Treatment (Hardcover)
I know of many people who have a drinking problem who don't want to stop drinking (socially, etc) and others who can't stop drinking. This book is a real eye-opener for those who thought that the only way to deal with a drinking problem is to quite cold turkey. The author did a good job presenting the information in an easy-to-understand way and I thought the section on the history of alcohol in the United States was very interesting and gave perspective on our notions that liquor is a "demon". I have passed my copy on to a friend who is a family counselor and she is already recommending it to her clients.
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