Portraying Abstinence Recovery as Puritanical Is in the Interest of Those Who Sell Addictive Drugs:

Abstinence has long been a central facet in recovery as defined by people with severe SUDs as their lived experience. Abstinence is critical for people on the far end of this spectrum for whom use often leads to suffering and death. Lumping it all under the term recovery is unhelpful at best, doing so conflates substance misuse that may respond to attempts to moderate with more severe conditions in which a person uses until death unless they abstain from use

…We also have to be careful to do so in ways we do not normalize problematic drug use and addiction in ways that we allow people to continue to suffer under the guise of choice. Addiction is a brain condition impacting cognition. This movement is unintentionally creating additional suffering for persons with severe SUDs.  

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Also see

• Addiction – Disease or Decision? 
• Brain Change in Addiction as Learning, Not Disease
• We Do Recover
• The Value of 12 Step Recovery