Post-Acute Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome: Is It Real?

REHAB INDUSTRY CONSPIRACY? –

May 4, 2023 – The idea of it was introduced by Terence Gorski and Merlene Miller in their 1982 book Counseling for Relapse Prevention, and they expanded upon it in Staying Sober: A Guide for Relapse Prevention (1986). Staying Sober became an extremely popular workbook in the addiction treatment industry, and untold numbers of patients were introduced to the concept of PAWS as though it were a scientifically proven reality.

It’s not hard to see why PAWS gained traction, in light of certain narratives that were dominant in the 1980s and have lingered since.

Neither Gorski nor Miller was a research scientist. Both were addiction counselors, and based their description of PAWS on certain preconceived ideas about “alcoholism” and on observation.

However, it’s not hard to see why PAWS gained traction, in light of certain narratives that were dominant in the 1980s and have lingered since.

The idea that drugs cause permanent brain damage fed into the propaganda of an era notorious for its “This is your brain on drugs” PSAs. PAWS also fits in well with Alcoholics Anonymous, when AA’s Step 2 indicates that people with alcohol addiction require “a Power greater than ourselves” to “restore us to sanity.”