This is a very serious problem and issue for all of AA. What's clear here is that no one in AA knows what they're recovering from so they have no idea what to do to recover. Not one got it right, including the expert himself. The simple answer is "do what your sponsor says to do...period." Addiction or "the addiction" is not the disease. Hypoism is the disease and addictions are but symptoms. Recovery must be from Hypoism, not the addiction(s). This is why AA fails. AA doesn't know this and refuses to know this. That's why there is no definitive recovery program, just suggestions and, of course, whatever god says, cough cough. Hypoism, the cause of all addictions, has a definite pathophysiology, and from this comes a definite recovery program mandated by the disease itself, as it should be. The scientific basis of Hypoism is that it's an unconscious genetic disease of the decision-making apparatus and its recovery depends on knowing and using this science. We are incapable of making decisions in our own best interest. Hypoic's Handbook explains all this as well as what this recovery process is, why we need to use sponsors and why they need to use their sponsors too, down the line. It's time we began using science rather than superstition and guessing. Hypoism has been available to AA since 1996 and could have been revised to use this science if it chose to. It has chosen not to. It's time we made this change to a coherent and science-based program. Learn about it. Tell AA you want it incorporated into the program so we can have real prevention for our kids and a defintive recovery program based on the science of the disease that causes the addictions and its other symptoms - misuse and misevaluation of instinctive behavior - all at an unconscious decision-making level.

The article states, “Grim thinks that D.A.R.E. and similarly wasteful programs persist simply because they relieve parents from the duty of having awkward (and possibly "hypocritical") conversations with their kids about drugs. ALSO BECAUSE NO ONE KNOWS WHAT ELSE TO DO.”

The capitalized sentence summarizes the problem except for one thing: I wrote the book about all this in 1996 and I know what to do to solve this mess. The book, Hypoic’s Handbook, clearly delineates the addiction problem and its solution. The problem is that you don’t like it, and that’s without even reading it. Sorry. But that’s no excuse. The solution has existed for 13 years. You have chosen not to read or use it.

My book (and my web site for the updated science since 1996 - http://www.nvo.com/hypoism/hypoismhypothesis/) explains why people use drugs and other addictors, why only certain people get addicted, the brain mechanism and genetics responsible for this, and how to use this information to solve the addiction epidemic and all its consequences. I have a web site dedicated to this paradigm and have written thousands of letters and comments about this paradigm (such as this one) to people supposedly interested in solving this mess. I’ve sent them my book for free, something I won’t do anymore because they just throw it in the garbage unread. I’ve even written salon.com about it. Now the author says “no one knows what else to do.” ???? Wow. Sorry. I don’t buy that. I’ve been telling people about what we can do and why since 1992. I’ve been ignored and censored. People may not know what to do but simultaneously they don’t want the solution because the solution, as I have handed it to them on a silver platter, isn’t what they want it to be. They don’t want the solution. My book, Hypoic’s Handbook, explains the science-based theory of drug use and addiction and it’s just not what people want it to be so they throw it away. People want the solution to be their theory of addiction plus their policies about addictions, even if it’s wrong and ineffective. They don’t want it to be the actual and correct theory of addiction and the potentially effective policies derived from that theory. Well, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. The solution to the addiction epidemic and its consequences just happens to be the actual theory of addiction causation, what I have named Hypoism, and the policies derived from that theory, like it or not. That just happens to be reality, just like the earth going around the sun, not the sun going around the earth. The answer to the addiction mess is here and is in writing for all to read and use. All you need to do is read it and use it. It’s otherwise absolutely free, as long as the government pays for what we need it to pay for, the infrastructure. Anyway, it’s all explained in the book. Your choice is whether to read it or not, but don’t say it doesn’t exist. It exists and is as real as real can be. The web site is: http://www.nvo.com/hypoism.

Jackson had many symptoms of the disease of Hypoism, the genetic disease that causes all addictions. Anorexia is just one of them. He also had drug addiction, people addiction, pedophilia, body dismorphic disorder, etc. All these are part of the disease of Hypoism.

Dan Umanoff, M.D.

http://www.nvo.com/hypoism

President and founder of The National Association for the Advancement and Advocacy of Addicts, Inc. (N4A), a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization of addicts for addicts offering free educational and legal services to discriminated against and abused addicts of all varieties, "substances" and "behavioral," and their families.