| In our one-of-a-kind approach to addiction, The Freedom Model for Addictions, we go over the empowering fact that addiction is not caused by outside factors or past events such as trauma and the like. However, you might come to the conclusion that there are reasons for your heavy substance use. This shift from causes to reasons for your use is empowering because you can easily change a reason for heavy use. In contrast, you have no way to stop an addiction if you are truly caused by some force or past trauma, or underlying issue. The Freedom Model describes this empowering shift in perspective like this: “Perhaps you are one of the many struggling substance users that don’t believe addiction is a disease. We get many guests who come into our retreats that agree that it is not a disease. Maybe you believe one of the alternative yet equivalent models of addiction where it’s not a disease, but there is still a distinct lack of control. No matter, your results are the same. If you think trauma is causing your substance use, and you set out to battle your trauma, the principle is the same – your conclusion that heavy substance use is what you need to be happy still goes unchanged. It nags at you while you focus on the red herring of trauma. Dealing with your “underlying causes” and co-occurring disorders plays out the same way. Trying to “increase self-control,” or solve the problem through nutritional supplements and macrobiotic diets, yoga, meditation, exercise, and alternative support groups are all methods that equally miss the point. All of those theories focus on battling some sort of imagined cause of substance use. In fact, there are no causes to be battled; there are only reasons held within the mind that underlie your preferences and choices. By ignoring reasons, these methods never allow you to address the conclusion you came to that heavy substance use is what you need to be happy, thus leaving your desire intact. They leave you preferring heavy substance use by distracting you from re-assessing its relative perceived benefits. While it is true that some people stumble into figuring out that they no longer prefer heavy substance use while undergoing these approaches, this is an accident. These people figured it out in spite of the “help” they received. Figuring out whether your current substance use makes you happy enough and whether or not you’d be happier with some level of change is everything.” | 
