The "disease" of alcoholism.

[Phil153]

Is it a disease? No more than the mental "disease" that causes someone to each too much and get fat - which isn't labelled as a disease, funnily enough.

There's definitely a biological component. Some people have brains with low stress tolerance and are more subject to addictions such as alcohol, drugs or gambling and problems such as depression. They don't have a robust system for making "happy" chemicals like most others do, so in that sense, it is a disease.

But we are more than our brain chemicals, and in my experience and opinion the vast majority of people who become alcoholics do so ultimately because of an emotional choice, and if they made the decision to stop, they could. So I don't think you could classify it with other true diseases like bipolar or schizophrenia or herpes or cancer or homosexuality.

[FortunaMaximus]

According to the etymology, it is.

If you can classify addictions as abnormalities of the organism.

Is it curable? Is there expectation of a cure for alcoholism? Sure. Would this be warmly embraced by alcoholics?

I don't think so, and I've got several family members who are alcoholics. AA has worked with varying degrees of success, but, yes, there's an inherent Christian element to it that's all too demanding of the individual to slough his problems off onto God.

That's uncool. While an addict may not be able to think rationally about his addiction and continue on his path without regards to the damage he is causing to himself or to others, it is a voluntary disease.

And I'm not talking about willpower necessarily. An addict knows when he is abusing the substance or the alcohol, he is making an incorrect choice.

So if it is a disease, it is one with a strong degree of culpability.

[arahant]

It shouldn't matter whether you call it a disease or not.
Medical groups recognize it as such because it encourages people to seek treatment and identifies it as a public health issue.

I would call it an addiction rather than a disease, myself. If there were something to call a disease, it would be the underlying propensity to become addicted. Alcoholism would then be a symptom of the disease, rather than the disease itself.

And 'cancer and homosexuality'? WTF?

[bkholdem]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Whatever you call it, 12-step programs have to go.

[/ QUOTE ]

Please explain.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a lot like Christianity. First, recognize you're weak and hopeless. Then be thankful to God because he's going to grant you hope!

[/ QUOTE ]

That is not actually what makes 12 step programs 'work'. What happens is that the members change roles in the social dynamic 'game' of alcoholism. They switch from the sick alcoholic to the role of 'rescuer'. They start 'saving' other newer members and this new role keeps them from drinking. They kind of become co-dependent on members who are more sick than themselves (sometimes doing a lot of good in helping others and sometimes not).

[m_the0ry]

Alcohol is the substance (illicit or otherwise) most seated in the foundation of our culture. Prohibition and incredibly strict enforcement would be the only way to remove alcoholism because it is flat out addictive and its use is strongly encouraged in our culture. Unfortunately prohibition is just impractical as history has shown us.


Alcoholism is a perfect example of social darwinism. Alcoholism isn't a disease because there isn't even a theoretical global cure. It's a social disease, and therefore an agent of social darwinism.

[madnak]

[ QUOTE ]
I would like to pull this back on-topic.

If you would like to discuss 12 step programs, please start another thread.

Is alcoholism a disease like cancer or not?

[/ QUOTE ]

This question is wholly semantic and meaningless.

Alcoholism isn't analogous to cancer. It may or may not be analogous to depression. You can call it a "disease" if you want, it doesn't matter. The question is relevant not to doctors but to politicians, who are the ones who care about whether a particularly charged word is associated with a given subject or not. In psychiatric terms, it is certainly useful to label it as an illness, and that is the only thing that matters.

[flipdeadshot22]

Over the last 4 years of being in a college environment (a "party school" environment at that), i've seen my drinking increase pretty much exponentially to the point where I have a rediculous tolerance for alcohol that worries many of the people around me. I come from an alcholic, yet financially successful family (pretty much every male member of the family have drug/alchohol issues,) which makes me all the more dumb for getting involved with it, but for me it's seemed like such a natural part of growing up to become an alcoholic (seems sick doesn't it?) Luckily for me (if you call it lucky) i've managed to maintain my functionality despite my alcoholism, and have accomplished all of my academic goals thus far. On the surface this is all well, but beneath this, I feel my life spiralling out of control, and my dependece growing stronger to the point where I need to have a drink first thing in the morning, at lunchtime and a binge drinking session at night. I used to make fun of people who drank alone and labeled them addicts, but now it seems i'm the addict. I'm not sure the technical definition of "disease" (i'll do some research), but the best way I could classify my situation is as a mental disease, which gets worse without treatement (and i've had to attend AA more times than I want to remember for multiple alchol related incidents, have been through the 12 step program and inhouse treatment, and nothing has worked.) Sorry for the tl;dr, it's just that this is an issue that I feel pretty hopeless about, despite everything else I have going for me.

[chezlaw]

[ QUOTE ]
I would like to pull this back on-topic.

If you would like to discuss 12 step programs, please start another thread.

Is alcoholism a disease like cancer or not?

[/ QUOTE ]
In my experience alcoholics are born not made. That's only based on my experience in several groups of heavy drinkers where 1) it seems clear that no amount of heavy drinking makes most people alcoholics and 2) The alcoholics have a completely different relationship with drinking than the rest of us.

chez

[ChrisV]

Whether or not it's a "disease" is semantics, it depends how you define disease.

I have mild tendencies towards alcoholism myself. If it wasn't going to do me any damage, I'd probably drink a bottle of wine every night. When I start drinking I find it difficult to stop, so I tend not to start most days.

If I felt I had a problem bad enough to require more serious action, I'd go with the Rational Recovery approach rather than AA. As they say there:

[ QUOTE ]
• Addiction recovery is not a group project; it is an individual responsibility. You are ultimately on your own.

• There are no Rational Recovery groups anywhere in the world! Your desire for “support” is nothing more, and nothing less, than a plan to get loaded in the absence of support.

• Stay away from recovery groups of all kinds; you can’t possibly recover there. They’ll never let you go, and you’ll be “in recovery” forever.

[/ QUOTE ]

Paul Phillips talks about it here. The way he describes his drinking sounds similar to me.

[Kimbell175113]

No one's taken Phil's bait wtf?