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#1
02-10-2007, 01:09 AM
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Re: The \"disease\" of alcoholism.
[ QUOTE ]
There are plenty of differences. If you want to consider them critical, thats your prerogative, but I think you'll have to make a better case than you have here. And can I ask why it is important that there be a critical difference? [/ QUOTE ] The following seems reasonable: Impairment of a vital function is required for a condition to be a disease. Drinking is not a vital function. Therefore, alcoholism is not a disease. 
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#2
02-10-2007, 01:37 AM
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Re: The \"disease\" of alcoholism.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] There are plenty of differences. If you want to consider them critical, thats your prerogative, but I think you'll have to make a better case than you have here. And can I ask why it is important that there be a critical difference? [/ QUOTE ] The following seems reasonable: Impairment of a vital function is required for a condition to be a disease. Drinking is not a vital function. Therefore, alcoholism is not a disease. [/ QUOTE ] Thats not the vital function that alcoholism impairs. Alcoholism is defined as the continuation of drinking in the face of adverse consequences. The vital function that alcoholism impairs is having personal and professional relationships.
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#3
02-10-2007, 02:02 AM
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Re: The \"disease\" of alcoholism.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] There are plenty of differences. If you want to consider them critical, thats your prerogative, but I think you'll have to make a better case than you have here. And can I ask why it is important that there be a critical difference? [/ QUOTE ] The following seems reasonable: Impairment of a vital function is required for a condition to be a disease. Drinking is not a vital function. Therefore, alcoholism is not a disease. [/ QUOTE ] Thats not the vital function that alcoholism impairs. Alcoholism is defined as the continuation of drinking in the face of adverse consequences. The vital function that alcoholism impairs is having personal and professional relationships. [/ QUOTE ] It depends on how alcoholism is defined. If it is totally behavioral, then its manifestation is a matter of choice. If it has a biological basis and all that it effects is drinking, then no vital function is involved, and therefore it is not a disease.
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#5
02-10-2007, 02:18 AM
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Re: The \"disease\" of alcoholism.
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Thats not the vital function that alcoholism impairs. Alcoholism is defined as the continuation of drinking in the face of adverse consequences. The vital function that alcoholism impairs is having personal and professional relationships. [/ QUOTE ] In other words, alcoholism is a "disease" because people like drinking so much that they'd rather do it than have a good marriage or hold down a job. Societal judgment that this is an improper choice is what makes people condemn alcoholism as a disease, but not hippie-ism, which also might lead to various job/ relationship problems. An article I meant to link to in my earlier post: Bryan Caplan, one of my favorite economists, analyzes mental illness using a Szaszian/ microeconomics model. The key conclusion: In contrast, most mental diseases amount to nothing more than unusual preferences; they do not affect what a person can do, only what he wants to do. I don't fully agree with the conclusions, especially with regards to certain mental disorders like schizophrenia, but it's good reading for a totally different outlook on mental illness. Full article: http://www.gmu.edu/departments/econo...n/szaszrev.doc (Word doc).
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#6
02-10-2007, 02:24 AM
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Re: The \"disease\" of alcoholism.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] Thats not the vital function that alcoholism impairs. Alcoholism is defined as the continuation of drinking in the face of adverse consequences. The vital function that alcoholism impairs is having personal and professional relationships. [/ QUOTE ] In other words, alcoholism is a "disease" because people like drinking so much that they'd rather do it than have a good marriage or hold down a job. Societal judgment that this is an improper choice is what makes people condemn alcoholism as a disease, but not hippie-ism, which also might lead to various job/ relationship problems. An article I meant to link to in my earlier post: Bryan Caplan, one of my favorite economists, analyzes mental illness using a Szaszian/ microeconomics model. The key conclusion: In contrast, most mental diseases amount to nothing more than unusual preferences; they do not affect what a person can do, only what he wants to do. I don't fully agree with the conclusions, especially with regards to certain mental disorders like schizophrenia, but it's good reading for a totally different outlook on mental illness. Full article: http://www.gmu.edu/departments/econo...n/szaszrev.doc (Word doc). [/ QUOTE ] This all seems reasonable to me. I could honestly care less what we call it, whether we call it a disease or a condition or a syndrome or just some bad choices. I'm going into medicine to help people, and I am entirely convinced that doctors can help alcoholics. To me, a disease is only a useful classification insofar as it implies that the situation is under my jurisdiction.
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#7
02-10-2007, 04:51 AM
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Re: The \"disease\" of alcoholism.
The difference between alcoholism and hippie-ism is that alcoholism involves the excessive, compulsive, and uncontrolled ingestion of mind and personality altering substances that are toxic to the brain and body.
To see this as equivalent to lifestyle choices such as celibacy or hippie-ism is ridiculous.
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#8
02-10-2007, 08:11 AM
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Re: The \"disease\" of alcoholism.
What about OCD, Obsesive Compulsive Disorder, where the person finds himself compelled to check whether he locked the door before going to sleep - 1000 times every night. Is this a disease? All he has to do is make up his mind not to check the door anymore. Isn't alchoholism somewhat similiar?
PairTheBoard
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#9
02-10-2007, 10:06 AM
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Re: The \"disease\" of alcoholism.
[ QUOTE ]
What about OCD, Obsesive Compulsive Disorder, where the person finds himself compelled to check whether he locked the door before going to sleep - 1000 times every night. Is this a disease? All he has to do is make up his mind not to check the door anymore. Isn't alchoholism somewhat similiar? [/ QUOTE ] I'm going to go ahead and bring up anorexia nervosa again, because it's highly analogous and people actually die from it. OCD might be better in that there's stronger evidence that it's neurological (that is, physical, that is, "real").
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#10
02-10-2007, 11:10 AM
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Re: The \"disease\" of alcoholism.
[ QUOTE ]
What about OCD, Obsesive Compulsive Disorder, where the person finds himself compelled to check whether he locked the door before going to sleep - 1000 times every night. Is this a disease? All he has to do is make up his mind not to check the door anymore. Isn't alchoholism somewhat similiar? PairTheBoard [/ QUOTE ] Very different kind of compulsion. With alcohol you're seeking out a substance to satisfy internal cravings or dull feelings - it becomes a behavior of habit and eventually your brain starts needing it to function properly. If you take away the substance, eventually the patient will improve and the addiction/compulsion will lessen. None of this is true of OCD. Regarding anorexia - that is actually a disease, because an anorexic's self image becomes so distorted that they lose touch with reality. Alcoholism is different. Alcoholics make a choice to drink - they're actively seeking out moods and feelings, and alcohol helps them get to that state. They crave the alcohol state and will do almost anything to stay there. Is that crazy? Kind of. But underlying it all is an emotional choice to wallow in self loathing or self pity or cowardice, to take the easy way out. None of the other disorders, once they're sufficiently advanced, have this trait.
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Hybrid Mode
