• A Brief Introduction to the Sonora Model of Addiction: A very brief explanation of addiction and the potential for cure from the perspective of the Sonora model.
  • PDF version
• Principles of the Sonora Model: An in-depth discussion of the principles underlying the model, how they were derived, and what they mean in terms of the identification of cause and the development of effective, reliable curative treatments.
• Addiction Awareness Challenge: Compare your beliefs and preconceptions about addiction with the facts as revealed by the Sonora model, and the current wisdom in treatment and recovery.
• Terms and Definitions: The Sonora model reframes addiction in a way that requires some new language to describe both the condition and its treatment as a way to differentiate from current thinking and practices. This page lists the terms used here and how they're applied in this web.

• The Sonora Model FAQ: An extensive collection of common questions and answers related to addiction in general and the Sonora model in particular. This is a good place to start if you already have some background in addiction theory or treatment.

• A Detailed Guide to the Sonora Model of Addiction and Compulsion: An in-depth look at how the model works and how it explains various aspects of addictive and compulsive disorders
• How Addiction Develops: The Sonora Model: A look at the typical progress of addiction from the perspective of the Sonora model, offering both brief and detailed explanations of six aspects of the condition's development.
  • Setup: The Injury that Causes Addiction and Compulsion
  • "Infection": The Consequences of Untreated Shock
  • Adaptation: Compulsivity Compensates for Post-shock Trauma
  • Evolution: The Twisted, Painful Path to Adult Addiction and Compulsivity
  • Identification: Binge or Chronic, Maintenance or Degenerative, Compulsive or Addict?
  • Degeneration: The Inevitable Price of All Addiction and Compulsion
• The Meaning of Prevention under the Sonora Model discusses how prevention is framed in context of this model, what changes may be needed to produce more effective results in preventing addiction and compulsion, and what hurdles we face in applying preventive strategies.
• The Circumstances Surrounding Mortal Shock and Addictive Onset covers the relationship between early-life shock and the development of patterns of compulsivity leading to addiction.
• The Type and Prevalence of Shocks Associated with Addiction describes how the prevalence of addiction can be related to the prevalence of early-life experience in civilized cultures which set up patterns of compulsivity.
• The Inevitability of Trauma from Early-life Shocks explains how and why the vast majority of us don't "get over" damaging early-life experiences, and how and why some of us do get over them.

• The Sonora model is a model of addiction, so it doesn't define cure. Instead, it pinpoints the cause of addiction; A Guide to Curing Addiction and Compulsion covers the basics of what's needed to permanently cure addiction as suggested by the Sonora model, and Evidence of Cure discusses frankly the existing evidence suggesting the reality of permanent cure for addiction...and the huge gaps that still exist between the theoretical and the scientifically-proven.
• The "Untreatable Ten Percent That the Sonora Model Doesn't Address discusses the recently-discovered phenomenon of "congenital compulsivity", and explains why the Sonora model's limits in defining addiction and compulsion actually help lend credibility to the model.
• The Technology Gap discusses the current problems we face in applying consistent, effective curative care, what technology we need to improve this situation, and what the existence of this technology will mean not just to addiction and compulsion but to all of our lives.

• Lessons from History: Personal opinion by Cub Lea; an explanation of why we can't - and shouldn't - expect the medical community to embrace or support any new model of addiction.
• Hope in Perspective: Personal opinion by Cub Lea; why the twenty-year timeline to mass cure may be excessively optimistic.
• The Future for Addicts and Addiction: There's light on the road ahead...but where does it come from?
• "Smoke Better, Drink Better, Eat More, Live Longer": A "sane living" seminar; the complete presenters' notes from a day-long harm-reduction seminar based on the Sonora model.
• The widenthecircle.org web: The original "formative" web that first discussed the nature and implications of the infant-shock model of addiction. (Contains much outdated material; provided for historical context, curiosity or background only.)

• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is one of the central pillars of the Sonora model, since it defines what is healthy and appropriate at each stage of life. This covers the basics and extends the current hierarchy to encompass pre-birth needs and developmental challenges
• A Brief History of Addiction Treatment and Theory: An overview of a century's evolution of addiction theory as it relates specifically to the Sonora model.
  • Introduction
  • The rise of AA and the myth of incurability
  • Mid-century: blanding out an acid soup
  • The 1970s and beyond: mainstreaming a new kind of suffering
  • Closing the millennium with a whimper
  • Pushing ahead: what's on the horizon
• The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Six Steps of the Oxford Group
• Event-based vs. Process-based: In recent decades, theorists and practitioners have applied process-based solutions to dealing with addiction on the assumption that addiction itself is a process. This page explains why the Sonora model breaks with this tradition by focusing so heavily on events.
• Shame and Shock: The Hidden Relationship: A brief examination of how the relatively new shock paradigm relates to the already well-known notion of toxic shame.
• The Phenomenon of Socially-sanctioned Compulsivity delves into the true scope of the pandemic of addiction and compulsion, and attempts to explain some of the features of this problem.
• Curative Care: Who Pays? talks about the coming controversy over how the high cost of curative care can be covered, who should pay for it, and why.
• The widenthecircle.org Web: A reposting of the 2001 "formative" web, over 100 pages of mostly dated material which, to my knowledge, still represents the first serious attempt to provide a comprehensive explanation of the infant-shock model of addiction. Much of the material is incomplete or somewhat misguided or open-ended; much more is known today, just three years later, than was known even then. Provided only for historical context, although some of the articles in this web may be useful adjuncts to the material in this current web.

• The introductory section as an uncopyrighted PDF: The introductory section formatted in Acrobat Reader (PDF) format, offered without copyrights, and available as a PDF for viewing or printing from within a browser, or as a ZIP archive for downloading and sharing.

• Mission Statement: Why this website exists and what it hopes to achieve.
• Statements of Copyright, Trademark and Ownership: Includes a statement of why this material isn't, and shouldn't be, trademarked or protected.
• Statement of Financial Intent: While the website itself is a not-for-profit venture, this project was never intended to be an act of charity or self-sacrifice, and the author reserves the right to profit from it in other ways. Reasons are offered here.
• Contact Information: How to submit feedback, comments, new research, or simply get in touch with the webmaster.
• Disclaimer: Just how seriously should you take this material?
• A Note to Previous Visitors: A brief explanation of why this site went offline in 2003, and why my personal site is offline for the foreseeable future

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