Jeffrey A. Schaler's Article 'Addiction Is A Choice'

In October of 2002, The Psychiatric Times published the article “Addiction is a Choice” by Jeffrey A. Schaler, PhD. In the article he asserts that addiction as a disease is empirically unsupported by science, an addict can monitor and control his or her use, and the therapy used to treat such affliction only leads patients to believe that they cannot control their behavior because of the belief that they have a disease. He contends that the idea of addiction in not a disease, rather a choice, because it is merely foolish and self-destructive behavior.
Schaler’s first point that science does not support the disease philosophy of addiction continues on to state that because of the lack of scientific backing, addiction is more a behavior and …show more content…
Schaler believes this psychotherapy misleads the patient into believing that addiction is a disease and, as a result, they cannot control their behavior. In fact, “psychotherapy, or ‘talk therapy’, is a way to treat people with a mental disease by helping them understand their illness” (NIH). Such therapy gives patients strategies and tools to manage their own stress and unhealthy behaviors. It teaches them that making healthy life-style changes helps to manage the symptoms of their disease and successfully function in everyday life. Because addiction has the classification of a mental disease in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), many doctors applied the use of psychotherapy and other types of individual and group therapy and reported great achievements in treating addiction. These successful cases resulted in reentry into society as a productive, healthy, clean and sober citizens. In all instances, the success rate rests with the patient’s desire to continue to do the work on themselves mentally and physically in order to maintain the results gained from past and continued