ABSTRACT
The concept of self-change, that is overcoming addiction without professional help or exiting an addiction career without formal intervention, has challenged this paradigm and received broad empirical support as numerous reviews of the literature have shown. This contribution positions the self-change concept within a broader theoretical context and highlights its central assumption in comparison. The self-change perspective offers a paradigm change, claiming that the addicted individual is able to make informed choices and has the potential to regain control over his/her life by developing individual recovery strategies and proactively seeking support. Limitations of the self-change concept as it has been described include most prominently a potential individualistic perspective. The self-change framework demonstrates that alternative models of addiction, beyond the polarization between moral failure and the medical model of brain disease, provide a new and useful conceptualization embracing research findings that were usually neglected in the past.
