The Sober Truth
Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Bel Davies
About this listen
AA has become so infused in our society that it is practically synonymous with addiction recovery. Yet the evidence shows that AA has only a 5-10 percent success rate - hardly better than no treatment at all. Despite this, doctors, employers, and judges regularly refer addicted people to treatment programs and rehab facilities based on the 12-step model.
In The Sober Truth, acclaimed addiction specialist Dr. Lance Dodes exposes the deeply flawed science that the 12-step industry has used to support its programs. Dr. Dodes analyzes dozens of studies to reveal a startling pattern of errors, misjudgments, and biases. He also pores over the research to highlight the best peer-reviewed studies available and discovers that they reach a grim consensus on the program's overall success.
But The Sober Truth is more than a book about addiction. It is also a book about science and how and why AA and rehab became so popular, despite the discouraging data. Dr. Dodes explores the entire story of AA's rise, from its origins in early fundamentalist religious and mystical beliefs to its present-day place of privilege in politics and media.
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If you’re the family member of an addict, you may feel confused, guilty, and scared of doing the wrong thing. And when you don’t know how to help, you may find yourself in a codependent role. Addict in the House offers a pragmatic, step-by-step guide to dealing with a loved one’s addiction, from accepting the reality of the disease to surviving what may be repeated cycles of recovery and relapse. You’ll learn how to encourage your addicted loved one to get help without forcing it and finally find the strength to let go of codependence.
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was okay.
- By Michelle on 05-02-19
By: Robin Barnett EdD LCSW, and others
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Manufacturing Depression
- The Secret History of a Modern Disease
- By: Gary Greenberg
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Am I happy enough? This has been a pivotal question since America's inception. "Am I not happy enough because I am depressed?" is a more recent version. Psychotherapist Gary Greenberg shows how depression has been manufactured---not as an illness but as an idea about our suffering, its source, and its relief. He challenges us to look at depression in a new way.
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Modern Gonzo Tour de Force
- By S. Frank on 11-12-11
By: Gary Greenberg
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Crazy Like Us
- The Globalization of the American Psyche
- By: Ethan Watters
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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America has been the world leader in generating new mental health treatments and modern theories of the human psyche. We export our psychopharmaceuticals packaged with the certainty that our biomedical knowledge will relieve the suffering and stigma of mental illness. We categorize disorders, thereby defining mental illness and health, and then parade these seemingly scientific certainties in front of the world.
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He is a reporter...
- By Briana on 05-07-18
By: Ethan Watters
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Anatomy of an Epidemic
- Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
- By: Robert Whitaker
- Narrated by: Ken Kliban
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In this astonishing and startling book, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades? Every day, 1,100 adults and children are added to the government disability rolls because they have become newly disabled by mental illness, with this epidemic spreading most rapidly among our nations children. What is going on?
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The author does not use a fair scientific approach
- By Michael on 08-15-10
By: Robert Whitaker
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Counterclockwise
- Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility
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If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically? For more than 30 years, award-winning social psychologist Ellen Langer has studied this provocative question, and now has a conclusive answer: opening our minds to what's possible, instead of clinging to accepted notions about what's not, can lead to better health at any age.
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Surprisingly disappointing
- By Stephen on 06-23-09
By: Ellen J. Langer
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Overcoming Opioid Addiction
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- By: Adam Bisaga MD, Karen Chernyaev - contributor
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Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, claiming more lives than the AIDS epidemic did at its peak. Opioid abuse accounts for two-thirds of these overdoses, with over 100 Americans dying from opioid overdoses every day. Now Overcoming Opioid Addiction provides a comprehensive medical guide for opioid use disorder (OUD) sufferers, their loved ones, clinicians, and other professionals. Here is expertly presented, urgently needed information and guidance
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Authoritative, compassionate guidance
- By Amazon Customer on 05-20-18
By: Adam Bisaga MD, and others
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Suspicious Minds
- How Culture Shapes Madness
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- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
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Mr. A. was admitted to Dr. Joel Gold’s inpatient unit at Bellevue Hospital in 2002. He was, he said, being filmed constantly, and his life was being broadcast around the world "like The Truman Show" - the 1998 film depicting a man who is unknowingly living out his life as the star of a popular soap opera. Over the next few years, Gold saw a number of patients suffering from what he and his brother, Dr. Ian Gold, began calling the "Truman Show Delusion," launching them on a quest to understand the nature of this particular phenomenon and the nature of madness itself.
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Intriguing
- By L. K. on 04-18-16
By: Joel Gold, and others
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Transcendence
- Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation
- By: Norman E. Rosenthal
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- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Norman E. Rosenthal, M.D., a 20-year researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health and the celebrated psychiatrist who pioneered the study and treatment of Season Affective Disorder (SAD), brings us the most important work on Transcendental Meditation since the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Science of Being and Art of Living - and one of our generation's most significant books on achieving greater physical and mental health and wellness.
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Inspirational yet "Informercional"
- By James on 05-24-13
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The Biology of Desire
- Why Addiction Is Not a Disease
- By: Marc Lewis PhD
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The psychiatric establishment and rehab industry in the Western world have branded addiction a brain disease based on evidence that brains change with drug use. But in The Biology of Desire, cognitive neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis makes a convincing case that addiction is not a disease and shows why the disease model has become an obstacle to healing. Lewis reveals addiction as an unintended consequence of the brain doing what it's supposed to do - seek pleasure and relief - in a world that's not cooperating.
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An important addition to understanding addiction.
- By Jeff M on 02-28-16
By: Marc Lewis PhD
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The Depths
- The Evolutionary Origins of the Depression Epidemic
- By: Jonathan Rottenberg
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 4 hrs and 27 mins
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Nearly every depressed person is assured by doctors, well-meaning friends and family, the media, and ubiquitous advertisements that the underlying problem is a chemical imbalance. Such a simple defect should be fixable, yet despite all of the resources that have been devoted to finding a pharmacological solution, depression remains stubbornly widespread. Why are we losing this fight?
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Great read for understanding
- By Adam on 02-04-15
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Desperate Remedies
- Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness
- By: Andrew Scull
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
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For more than two hundred years, disturbances of the mind—the sorts of things that were once called "madness"—have been studied and treated by the medical profession. Mental illness, some insist, is a disease like any other, whose origins can be identified and from which one can be cured. But is this true? In this masterful account of America's quest to understand and treat everything from anxiety to psychosis, one of the most provocative thinkers writing about psychiatry today sheds light on its tumultuous past.
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A Great History but I Have One Big Reservation
- By Jeffrey Scot Minch on 08-02-22
By: Andrew Scull
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What listeners say about The Sober Truth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Gregory W Minton
- 05-06-19
A necessary read for those with genuine interest
After three years of success addressing personal addiction issues and intensive reading of most every source available, this book is at least within the top three most revealing of the problems and potential solutions to addiction.
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7 people found this helpful
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- SzQ
- 10-09-24
Insightful
I had not realized that AA was a religion but now I understand better the big business model.
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- Mario
- 05-26-24
The Truth will set you free.
I’m four years sober and thriving despite my disagreement with most of the twelve steps. This is a much needed point of view that is backed by serious research and relevant questions. This book will help many people to recover not just from addiction, but from the damage that can be caused by the 12 step approach of recovery.
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- Kirk in CT
- 12-05-21
Good science debunks AA myths/cult.
Excellent. Debunks AA nonsense. Still confuses abstinence with 'sobriety' though. Worth a listen. AA believers will hate it, but then science isn't their strong point is it?
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2 people found this helpful
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- Josh doherty
- 04-30-23
Mandatory Reading!
As someone who lives AND works in the recovery sphere, I wish someone had handed me this book the day I walked in to rehab!
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- Sarah Couture
- 05-17-20
Absolutely True! Thanks for spelling it out
I love this book! It breaks down the frustratingly obvious problems with 12 step groups and rehabs in a logical way. It explains why they are highly ineffective for most people and also points out the harmful outcomes of using AA and NA as the gold standard for addiction treatment. Very good book :)
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3 people found this helpful
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- Wesley
- 03-06-24
There needs to be more awareness about 12 step programs and how they truly affect people
I loved the interviews and how this book goes very in depth about everything that's wrong with 12 step programs
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- Anthony
- 10-02-22
Genius
Finally, somebody that understands me. I've been struggling with alcoholism for 15 years and I have gone to thousands of anonymous support groups. The author eloquently articulated what I have been feeling and thinking for years and years. It was very reassuring to hear his point of you, backed up by very compelling facts. Everybody has by default recommended that I pursue AA, and if that doesn't work, try more AA. I am then failure because I was unable to abide by what is stop by the majority to be a fool-proof system where if success is not achieved, it is the fault of the user and no other explanation is possible. Thank you for writing this eye opening book, a must-read for anyone affected by addiction.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Vince mendola
- 05-04-21
this does not help anyone
a book about the obvious ways one can and has thrown stones at AA for decades
ill keep using it until science finds a better way
wish the resources used to publish and write this book were used to help finding better solution to addiction vs poking holes at the only solution we know that works if followed
vince mendola
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3 people found this helpful
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- graveydh
- 07-08-23
Didn’t explore other options
There are a number of treatment options that weren’t explored. He tears into AA pretty well and with good reason, but then is overtly confident that he has the one solution or root of all addiction. Also refers to his other book like 3 other times and it’s pretty annoying. Over it was ok. Not the best book to explore AA and addiction, but it might be the type of book someone needs to hear.
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