How The Freedom Model Challenges Mainstream Ideas About Addiction And How To Use It For Anything

Still Life by Paul Gauguin

The Freedom Model is a positive approach to reassessing behaviors usually referred to as “addictions”. It strongly emphasizes our ability to choose our behaviors by encouraging a realistic and clear view of our options. The book was written with substances in mind, but really the principles can be applied to many behaviors and areas of life.

There is a lot of mythology surrounding substances specifically which is implicit in mainstream thought, so the book spends a considerable amount of time first dismantling these myths to allow people to make clearer decisions. The reader could follow the same process of critical examination to dismantle other myths they encounter. Some of the myths talked about in the book are as follows: substances can change your thoughts and feelings, people experience a loss of control when they engage in substance use, there is no logical reason to use substances, and if you use substances you will be trapped by them forever. I’ll briefly talk about these myths. Substances have physiological affects which are easily observable. These effects usually boil down to slowing down or speeding up natural processes of the human body. These effects are all only physiological though. Substances are incapable of making you happy, sad, brave, forget about your problems, angry, or any of the other many things people do while on substances. People often attribute a causal relationship here where there isn’t one. Those things might be associated, but they are not causes in the scientific sense because they are not consistently observable. There are many instances of people engaging in different behaviors and feelings while on substances, and these experiences vary a great deal within cultures, contexts, people, and even vary in a single individual. Therefore, substances don’t “cause” people to misbehave and they also don’t cause you to feel good. These are choices people make while using substances. Even letting go of stress for a little while and focusing on something else is a choice. The observable physiological effects of substances can be interpreted anyway you’d like to interpret them, as pleasurable, boring, or even uncomfortable.

Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet

People choose to use substances and engage in other behaviors for a reason. This reason is not an abstract reason tied to some trauma or an unhappy childhood. Instead it is just tied to some benefit people see in the activity. The benefit they see is entirely subjective and dependent on the way they interpret the world. The Freedom Model’s goal is partially to make people aware of this framing process. Since people engage in activities and behaviors for the benefits they find in them the good news is everyone is free to change their behaviors if they choose to reframe what they see as being their most beneficial option. No one is trapped forever, and simply using a substance or engaging in an activity won’t force you to do that behavior forever. You really can stop whenever you like. Aside from the mythology surrounding substances, this book talks about three ideas which can leave you feeling free to make choices that you see as the most beneficial to you. These are the ability to choose, self autonomy, and the PDP. Let’s go over each briefly. Throughout the Freedom Model, the authors emphasize that you always have the ability to choose when you are presented a set of options. The problem comes when you don’t clearly see what your options are. Even in dire circumstances you have the ability to choose between options. We face a million choices each day. Should you brush your teeth? Go to work? Eat spaghetti? No one can decide for you what to think about these choices. You must make up your own mind about what you think is the best decision for you. That’s self autonomy. Lastly, the positive drive principle or the PDP is the idea that we make decisions based on what we see as having the most benefit. This really feels like common sense, but sometimes we don’t use this to our advantage. People try to scare themselves into making the decision that they think they should make, rather than reframing the way they see the benefits their various options have.

When you’re engaging in a behavior or activity that has some negative consequences which you no longer want or when you feel cornered into making a choice, taking time to reassess your options and not only look at the costs, but also the benefits of various options can greatly increase your satisfaction with whatever you choose. Knowing that you are choosing and deciding to be happy with your choice is a great feeling. No one can come to your conclusions for you, so really take the time to think your options through. You’re always free, and that’s the biggest and most empowering take away from the Freedom Model.