Prominent Columbia neuroscientist Carl Hart busts many commonly accepted myths about drugs, including the Addiction Myth, in his new book High Times: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery that Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society.
Continue reading The Man Who Almost Cured Addiction →

So what if AA is a Pagan cult? Whether or not you think alcoholism is a disease, AA helps people who are in a really bad spot and keeps them out of trouble.  They are less likely to drink or do drugs while attending meetings and performing the 12 Steps.  Why so stuck up on Christianity?  What’s the problem here?
Continue reading AA is a Pagan Cult →

“I drank so much that I couldn’t remember what happened afterwards, except I woke up in a stranger’s bedroom surrounded by empty condom wrappers and a guy snoring loudly next to me.”

The alcoholic will often claim “blackout”.  We are supposed to take this as evidence that the drinker is compulsive and unable to control their intake.  Excessive drinking to the point of memory loss is a symptom of the disease.  After all, why would someone put themselves in that kind of situation intentionally?
Continue reading I call “Blackout” →

Most people think Alcoholics Anonymous is a beneficial group that helps people recover from their their addiction to alcohol.  It provides a safe, structured and open environment where people can discuss their problems and provide mutual support to stay clean, get better, and move on with their lives.
Continue reading School for Scoundrels →

Let’s do an experiment.  Take two groups of children.  To one group you instruct:

Children, be careful around candy.  Some people get addicted to candy.  Here’s what happens: They start eating it and things seem ok at first, but after some time they find that they are unable to stop.  Then, they eat all the candy, even though they are getting really fat and desperately want to stop.  Even though they may not even really like the taste of the candy!  For these children, the only solution is to completely ban candy from their lives.  Otherwise they may succumb to the addiction again.  It is a life-long struggle, although there are treatment programs for it.

Continue reading Candy Addiction and the Power of Suggestion →

Addiction is a terrible thing. The addict is desperate for drugs and does terrible things to get them. Once he has them he doesn’t give a damn about anyone or anything.  It is as if his soul is possessed by the devil. Of course, we are not religious and we don’t believe that literally. There is a scientific explanation for why the addict acts with such malice. His goal is not to hurt people; he is lying and cheating and stealing to get the drug. Although the child seems like a demon, he is actually in the throes of a medical disease and must be dealt with compassionately. In fact, entire industries were created to treat and research this disease. If you want to find a rehab, there are many. It’s a tough disease, but it can be treated. Never cured, of course, but treated. And people get better.
Continue reading The Little Psychopath Could: How the Addiction Myth creates new Drug Addicts →

All of the best-selling accounts of addiction turn out to be fakes.  This is true of James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, and Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey through his Son’s Addiction by David Sheff.  Why is that?  If you read this site, you already know the answer: because addiction is a myth, and therefore any account of it must be fictional or fraudulent.
Continue reading Why does every best seller on addiction turn out to be fake? →

There is a multi-billion dollar medical industry dedicated to studying the science of ‘addiction’.  However, this is an exercise in futility.  There is no such thing as addiction (defined as an uncontrollable compulsion to drink/drug).  All they can show is that parts of the brain light up when people who use drugs see pictures of them, e.g. cocaine, etc.  Surprise, surprise!  I’m sure my brain would light up when I see a donut.  But I’m not addicted to them.  (Well maybe a little.)
Continue reading Addict Science →

Congratulations Bill W and Dr. Bob!  The Library of Congress ranked your book among the 100 most influential books in American literature.
Continue reading AA Enshrined in History →

Drug addiction is a myth, and drug addicts and alcoholics are total fakers. This may seem hard to believe, because the idea of drug addiction is so ingrained in our consciousness. However, we believe in drug addiction even though we never experienced it ourselves. Although the theory seems plausible, we are completely reliant on the accounts of others, and that they are accurately representing their internal experience. Unlike other diseases like cancer and arthritis, for which there is clear physical evidence, and even for some mental disorders such as schizophrenia, there is no clear physical representation for addiction. In fact, as shown elsewhere on the site, the medical evidence for addiction is often invalid and inconclusive at best. Is it really a disease? Or is it a modern myth? To what extent are the addicts themselves aware of their lies, or do they actually believe the addiction myth, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Continue reading The Types of Addiction Fakers →

We know that drug addiction is real because every day we hear another story of a celebrity with a drug problem getting into trouble.  Drunk driving seems a particularly popular past time among many celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, and Robert Downey Jr.  These are people who could easily afford a driver (and probably have one) but choose to get behind the wheel anyway.  What were they thinking?  They must be addicted to drugs/alcohol and this impaired their judgment.  There is no other explanation.
Continue reading The Real Addicts →

If you want to construct a believable story about how you became an addict, and the overpowering force of addiction, and how it destroyed your life before you put the pieces back together, it’s not hard to do.  Just follow the formula:
Continue reading How to construct a great addiction story →