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The Miracle Method: A Radically New Approach to Problem Drinking
A new approach to problem drinking that focuses not on the past or the present but on the future. Your spouse complains about your drinking. Your boss suggests Alcoholics Anonymous. You know you have a problem. You need a solution; you need a miracle. The authors ask readers to imagine such a miracle: Suppose that while you are asleep tonight a miracle happens and your problem is solved, just like that! Because you were sleeping, you didnt know that this miracle occurred. What is the first thing tomorrow morning that will let you know that there has been a miracle and that your problem is solved?
From that "first thing," the authors help readers to imagine a future where drinking is not a problem and to specify small, concrete, obtainable goals that will make that future a reality. Neither the humiliation of "hitting bottom" nor a lifetime commitment to AA is necessary to make this approach work. Instead the individual learns to recognize exceptions (times when drinking is not a problem), catch himself "doing things right," handle setbacks, and revise the "miracle picture" when things arent working. Highly practical, The Miracle Method is a radically new and effective approach to problem drinking.
From that "first thing," the authors help readers to imagine a future where drinking is not a problem and to specify small, concrete, obtainable goals that will make that future a reality. Neither the humiliation of "hitting bottom" nor a lifetime commitment to AA is necessary to make this approach work. Instead the individual learns to recognize exceptions (times when drinking is not a problem), catch himself "doing things right," handle setbacks, and revise the "miracle picture" when things arent working. Highly practical, The Miracle Method is a radically new and effective approach to problem drinking.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1995
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March 28, 2022
This book gets its third star because it does at least confront the medical model of alcohol abuse and point out that misuse of alcohol is not caused by some disease. Unfortunately, Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12 Step Method has huge political clout and has gained, if not a monopoly in responding to alcohol problems, then the ability to corrupt and constrain efforts being made to engage with problems associated with alcohol. And all this despite continuing evidence that AA fails to achieve what it claims and that people who have had major problems with alcohol can change their lifestyles and continue to drink in a non-problematic manner despite AA's insistence that complete abstinence is the only 'cure' for the 'disease'.
We need to get one thing straight - there are positives to alcohol: alcohol can be a magnificent social lubricant, it can relax, it can provide people with lots of fun and entertainment. Even the occassional hangover can be funny ... or at least amusingly tolerable.
For some people, however, alcohol can cause problems - what you get is a chain reaction: people who have real problems (experience of pain, loss, loneliness, fear, a sense of inadequacy or lack of worth, etc.) can find escape in alcohol, can develop a habit of using alcohol as a crutch, a dependence on alcohol: using it to escape the problem can create further problems - loss of job, breakdown of relationship, violence, driving under the influence, etc., etc. The task is to tackle the problem at the root of the problem ... and not see alcohol as the problem root.
Deal with the real problem, the problem which is the root cause, and alcohol can become once again a simple social lubricant ... and the worst you can look forward to is the occassional hangover.
Miller & Berg do recognise this. They suggest that, if you have problems, imagine what life would be like without the problem ... imagine a miracle occurs and the problem evaporates.
That's the Miracle. What they don't offer is a Method. The book rambles on with good ideas about tackling problems, with lots of cherry-picked themes from the world of therapy, lots of hints and checklists and do's and don'ts ... but no real method.
If you're buying this book because you're having problems with alcohol - or someone close to you has problems - step back and ask where the problems lie. The apparent alcohol problem is not a disease - it is evidence of some deeper problem (and I use the term 'evidence' rather than 'symptom'). What's wrong? Why drink? Why is drink necessary? Don't think in terms of 'addiction', in terms of the alcohol seizing control and creating an insatiable desire for more alcohol ... look beyond, look deeper for the problem. What are you running away from?
A miracle won't happen. If you crack it it's because of your own efforts, not some miracle. Beware of therapists amd therapies. Freud was an utter fraud who set back our understanding of the human psyche by a century and more - we are not driven by unconscious desires. There are too many therapists making money convincing people that they can be regressed to discover past lives, or can recover forgotten memories, too many people being deluded that they've been abducted by aliens or been subjected to satanic abuse, etc., etc.
Beware of therapists - they are part of an industry only a small part of which is actually doing any good. There are as many different schools of psychology and therapy and psychoanalysis and counselling as there are breweries and distilleries and vinyards. There's virtually nothing about which they've all agree - they embrace hundred, thousands of conflicting theories (a lot of which are com[pete looney tunes). I've read accounts by people who boast about the fact they've been in therapy for twenty years! As the saying goes, if you need therapy for that long you must be nuts! It's a huge industry, much of it is either corrupt or incompetent ... or abusive.
Interesting book in places - if it gets you to question the medical model and the idea of 'alcoholism' then you've got your money's worth. If it gets you to ask questions about the nature of therapy and psychoanalysis, etc., then you've gained a bonus. There are no miracles - start asking questions for yourself, and get out of therapy if you've been sucked into it ... there are probably more incompetents and abusers out there than there are effective helpers.
We need to get one thing straight - there are positives to alcohol: alcohol can be a magnificent social lubricant, it can relax, it can provide people with lots of fun and entertainment. Even the occassional hangover can be funny ... or at least amusingly tolerable.
For some people, however, alcohol can cause problems - what you get is a chain reaction: people who have real problems (experience of pain, loss, loneliness, fear, a sense of inadequacy or lack of worth, etc.) can find escape in alcohol, can develop a habit of using alcohol as a crutch, a dependence on alcohol: using it to escape the problem can create further problems - loss of job, breakdown of relationship, violence, driving under the influence, etc., etc. The task is to tackle the problem at the root of the problem ... and not see alcohol as the problem root.
Deal with the real problem, the problem which is the root cause, and alcohol can become once again a simple social lubricant ... and the worst you can look forward to is the occassional hangover.
Miller & Berg do recognise this. They suggest that, if you have problems, imagine what life would be like without the problem ... imagine a miracle occurs and the problem evaporates.
That's the Miracle. What they don't offer is a Method. The book rambles on with good ideas about tackling problems, with lots of cherry-picked themes from the world of therapy, lots of hints and checklists and do's and don'ts ... but no real method.
If you're buying this book because you're having problems with alcohol - or someone close to you has problems - step back and ask where the problems lie. The apparent alcohol problem is not a disease - it is evidence of some deeper problem (and I use the term 'evidence' rather than 'symptom'). What's wrong? Why drink? Why is drink necessary? Don't think in terms of 'addiction', in terms of the alcohol seizing control and creating an insatiable desire for more alcohol ... look beyond, look deeper for the problem. What are you running away from?
A miracle won't happen. If you crack it it's because of your own efforts, not some miracle. Beware of therapists amd therapies. Freud was an utter fraud who set back our understanding of the human psyche by a century and more - we are not driven by unconscious desires. There are too many therapists making money convincing people that they can be regressed to discover past lives, or can recover forgotten memories, too many people being deluded that they've been abducted by aliens or been subjected to satanic abuse, etc., etc.
Beware of therapists - they are part of an industry only a small part of which is actually doing any good. There are as many different schools of psychology and therapy and psychoanalysis and counselling as there are breweries and distilleries and vinyards. There's virtually nothing about which they've all agree - they embrace hundred, thousands of conflicting theories (a lot of which are com[pete looney tunes). I've read accounts by people who boast about the fact they've been in therapy for twenty years! As the saying goes, if you need therapy for that long you must be nuts! It's a huge industry, much of it is either corrupt or incompetent ... or abusive.
Interesting book in places - if it gets you to question the medical model and the idea of 'alcoholism' then you've got your money's worth. If it gets you to ask questions about the nature of therapy and psychoanalysis, etc., then you've gained a bonus. There are no miracles - start asking questions for yourself, and get out of therapy if you've been sucked into it ... there are probably more incompetents and abusers out there than there are effective helpers.
Displaying 1 of 1 review