People Control Their Addictions: No matter how much the “chronic” brain disease model of addiction indicates otherwise, we know that people can quit addictions – with special reference to harm reduction and mindfulness

Abstract The world, led by the United States, is hell bent on establishing the absence of choice in addiction, as expressed by the defining statement that addiction is a “ chronic relapsing brain disease” (my emphasis). The figure most associated with this model, the director of the American National Institute on Drug Abuse, Nora Volkow, claims that addiction vitiates free will through its effects on the brain. In reality, while by no means a simple task, people regularly quit their substance addictions, often by moderating their consumption, usually through mindfulness-mediated processes (Peele, 2007). Ironically, the brain disease model's ascendance in the U.S. corresponds with epidemic rises in opiate addiction, both painkillers ( Brady et al., 2016 ) and heroin ( CDC, n.d. ), as well as heroin, painkiller, and tranquilizer poisoning deaths ( Rudd et al., 2016 ). More to the point, the conceptual and treatment goal of eliminating choice in addiction and recovery is not only futile, but iatrogenic. Indeed, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's epidemiological surveys, while finding natural recovery for both drug and alcohol disorders to be typical, has found a decline in natural recovery rates (Dawson et al., 2005) and a sharp increase in AUDs (Grant et al., 2015).