What Is Addiction Really?

Moon shot: Promote developmental change for all young adults.

Everyone has a belief about addiction and how to help. Yet nothing changes.

If we fail to act, a very predictable trend will continue in your families, communities, military, and schools. More low risk students will continue to die. Everybody looks low risk to them. That’s a fatal mistake every semester on every campus, every year. The high-risk believes they are low risk too. They act like they know what they are doing. More tragedy. The severe risk is the smallest and most discouraged group. They are desperate to change. They will stop - a very dangerous act in itself. They cannot stay stopped. They begin to fear life much more than death.

Let’s do something different. We need power. Updating the definition is the best path forward to collaboration and empowerment.

What’s holding us back? Nothing but our outdated perspective.

Researching addiction is like nailing jelly to a tree. A little part is studied, and the rest slides away. Researchers focus on the most severe and available clients to study. This tendency has the scientific name “selection bias”. There is a way around this barrier.

I found a solution by making the same error. My model was accurate but incomplete. Data analysis uncovered my error. Everything became clear at once. All 5,000 college students were shouting about the discovery of their own pattern. Not just the students at high or severe risk. Everybody has a pattern and they are all changing. The barrier was shattered. I measured it. Now so can you.

There is a difference. And a measurement. Hiding in plain sight. Everybody uses the same risk response factors - but not in the same pattern. The pattern is the difference. We can’t change the factors. We can empower pattern change - long before symptoms. No one else in the world can say that. They operate under an outdated definition.

The new definition for addiction is: Mistaking a dependent risk response pattern for an autonomous pattern. This could happen to anybody. It happens at any time to 25% of the population. They are no longer invisible.

This finding explains Warren Buffet’s observation about human behavior. “The chains of a habit are not noticed until they are too heavy to break”.

Now we have a way to empower pattern responsibility, many of whom will spread the word. It’s what friends do.

This week's significant quotation: Man will become better when you show him what he is like - Anton Chechov

Join me in what I hope is the final battle in this war. It is fun to see and measure student change. No drama, no stigma, no judgment. Prehab is a very flexible presentation and can be tailored to your needs. I have online free resources to back you up. long before the chains get too heavy.

Contact me for a free 30-minute consultation.

Patrick N. Moore LPC

[email protected]

About Patrick Moore

Pat is a Licensed Professional Counselor, creator of the Motivational Assessment Prevention Program (MAPP) and author of PREHAB: Leveraging Perception to End Substance Abuse. The MAPP model has produced results at colleges and high schools in the Atlanta, GA area. Pat’s research focus is on the risk continuum for Substance Use Disorders from prevention to treatment. His research uncovered causes and effective education methods for all risk levels based on developing affective risk response patterns. His research experience is complemented by his clinical experience with Individual Psychology, Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Myers Briggs Personality Type. Pat is a contributing member, trainer and speaker for regional, national and international conferences.