"Denial": A Tool of Convenience in the Recovery Culture

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Intro:


Thomas Wayburn, Ph.D. in a paper said; The term "denial" is a fallacious appeal to the authority of the treatment community in a dispute with a user who is insufficiently articulate to defend his values and motives. The term "denial" is an impostor.

The author can add to this his own experience; in which case the term denial has been utilized for its appeal to the authority and ideological dominance of either the treatment community or the condescending non-drug user, often in dispute with a user who in fact does articulate his personal values and motives for use, and in some cases articulates them quite well. In many cases, this drug user may be a productive member of society who has managed to use drugs competently and responsibly thus far - with no bad results aside from being found out or "caught" - in which case the only defense or argument available to the treatment 'authority' or non-user is to marginalize the user by insisting he is suffering from "denial". The irony in this is that all too often, the authoritative party itself is experiencing a state of denial; in their inability to come to grips with the idea that one might be able to use socially-disapproved drugs responsibly and incorporate drug use succesfully into their lifestyle. Intellectual honesty is not a strong suit with the typical drug treatment worker or addiction bureaucrat.

What is "denial"?

Denial is a frequently used buzzword of the addiction & treatment world. The term has no real meaning, even to the recovery fanatics who so casually apply the term to anyone and anything failing to conform with their very narrow doctrine of thinking. It has become a tool of the recovery culture for labeling virtually anyone as "sick", planting a seed of self-doubt and perceived powerlessness.

Convincing individuals they are delusional and cannot trust their own thinking leads many to submit to traditional recovery doctrine. Convinced of their personal and intellectual incompetency, they become dependent on recovery doctrine to do their thinking for them, and to otherwise dictate every facet of their lives and livelihood.

Not only is the term denial used to diagnose the drug user. Their loved ones are diagnosed with denial as well. Tragically all too often, vulnerable friends and family members submit to the notion that they themselves are afflicted with their own condition called "codependence", and subsequently turn their lives & will over to recovery doctrine (yes, an entire branch of the treatment and recovery industry is dedicated to the disease of "codependence", a disease which, due to its complete lack of identifiable pathology, has been conveniently emphasized as very much a "spiritual disease")

The label of denial allows recovery culture to reinforce the subject's self-perceived role as a subservient, sick person, and to emphasize their dominant status as the only party who is seeing reality & truth as it really is.

The diagnosis of denial serves to stamp out any opportunity for meaningful conversation regarding drug use. It is used to reinforce the dominance of recovery doctrine while minimalizing or disqualifying any other conflicting ideology - regardless of its actual merit - while avoiding intelligent or reasonable discourse.

Moderation and discipline do not exist and to believe so is a symptom of denial:

In our time, there is no recognition of such a thing as over-indulgent or excessive drug use. What once, albeit in a wiser age, may have been perceived as excessive drinking or drug use is now indiscriminately labelled as "addictive illness", regardless of the circumstance, and with no verifiable diagnostic measures to speak of. The disease of addiction means whatever the recovery culture says it means at any given time. 

The popular understanding of heavy drug use (i.e. addiction) has never minimalized the notions of responsibility and self-competence to the extent it now does. The idea that a heavy drinker or drug user might do best to cut back on their use or incorporate some self-discipline into their lifestyle is somehow unfathomable. Instead, those who use drugs or alcohol excessively are all sick and "need treatment". Plain and simple. No ifs, ands, or buts. To even attempt claiming personal responsibility and question the merits of medical treatment for such behavior constitutes yet one more "symptom" of the illness itself.