Denial, with respect to drug and alcohol use, simply does not exist. It is a manipulative trap to coerce people who use drugs and/or alcohol into believing that they, the users, are oblivious of their own behaviors. Everyone who has problems because of drug and/or alcohol use knows that they have problems because of drug and/or alcohol use. To suggest otherwise is utter stupidity.

What Alcoholics Anonymous members, drug and alcohol treatment professionals, psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors and other "professionals" don't (and cannot) understand is that they, the professionals, cannot know the mind of another human being, so when a drug and/or alcohol user tells one of these self-proclaimed experts that they, the users, don't have drug and alcohol use problems, the so called "professionals," immediately condemn these users as being in "denial."

BRI researchers interviewed hundreds of drug and/or alcohol users asking if they, the users, knew that they were having problems because of their drug and/or alcohol uses. 100% reported that they, the user, knew that they were experiencing problems because of their using. That being true, why did nearly all of them deny having problems when asked by "professionals," family members and friends? The answer is obvious; if they, the user, admitted to someone else that their drug and/or alcohol use was creating problems, then the most guarded secret of the user's mind may have to be revealed. Contrary to the notion of Alcoholics Anonymous and the myriad of drug and alcohol treatment professionals, this most guarded secret has something to do with the user not wanting to admit that drug use and/or alcohol use is causing problems in the user's life (denial), such a notion couldn't be further from the truth.

The most guarded secret in drug and/or alcohol users' minds is that most users do not want to stop using, regardless of their circumstances. There is no "denial;" the users know exactly what they are doing. And, until they are self-motivated to stop using drugs and alcohol, they won't. Then again, when users become self-motivated to stop altogether or moderate using drugs and/or alcohol, they spontaneously stop or moderate. Some become moderate users, while the vast majority remains abstinent.

Then there is the dreaded "disease." You know, like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. This alleged disease, in professional lingo, is known as addiction or alcoholism.

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