scoteesh

This has never made sense to me when I have read it in the past.

When I think of disease I think of cancer/malaria/parkinsons etc.

What is everyone's thoughts ?

Thanks

NapsteR1

if disease = not well / right due to a genetic pre-disposition to abuse / crave / need certain chemical compounds to the extent of inflicting significant and lasting harm to the sufferer to the point of death.

then chronic alcoholism fits that description for me.

this doesn't stretch to fit someone who isn't an alcoholic but enjoys the odd glass at weekends = "having abit of cancer"

Pastispast

I was an alcoholic from my first sip of alcohol - no trauma or buildup. What I'm saying it was always there before i knew it. Diabetics are the same - they usually have it before they know it. It's not like an infectious disease more a genetic one like a syndrome or predisposition. What we do know is, as yet there is only one cure - total abstinence. And that there makes it better than most diseases.

deeker

I believe it is a disease
It' runs in familes, we are genetically predisposed, it destroys generation after generation. It is progressive. And it is fatal.
__________________________________________________ ___________

Medical Community
In 1956, the American Medical Association (AMA) stated alcoholism was a disease, as it met the five criteria needed in order to be considered a disease: pattern of symptoms, chronic, progression, subject to relapse, and treatability.


The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged
Alcoholism as a serious medical problem in 1951,
and the American Medical Association
declared alcoholism as a treatable illness in 1956.

Alcoholism is a chronic, progressive disease that manifests itself with symptoms that affect one physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and socially.

RecklessEric

It's an issue that divides the treatment community.
I don't know for sure, but when I drink, I sure feel diseased.

nandm

Alcoholism is progressive, chronic, and deadly if left untreated.

I don't know if it is a disease or an allergy or what but I do know that when alcohol enters my body that I have a psychological and physiological reaction to it that non alcoholics do not experience which is the phenomenon of craving/obsession. This obsession leads alcoholics to do things that sane people or normal drinkers would not do like spend their rent checks on alcohol rather than pay rent to keep a roof over the heads of their children, get behind the wheel of a car during a blackout, have unprotected sex, be unfaithful, be drunk at work, forget to pick up a child from school, bring strangers into ones home, start fights, etc...

It is not something that I can take back and suddenly not be an alcoholic. It is something that I have to treat daily to keep in remission. Alcoholism ate away at the very fabric of my life until I was able to find a way to put it in remission. Just like a cancer in remission it sits under the skin waiting for the right conditions to come back full force. For my alcoholism that is that first drink. So disease, allergy, non disease it really makes no difference to me as the bottom line is I have a condition where I can not drink and have to find a way to live with that fact.

robgt350

i do not think it is a disease. it see it as a chosen pattern of behavior that we choose to do it we want it or not. now the side effects such as high blood pressure, liver failure, trauma can be viewed as diseases. but drinking alcohol should not be viewed as a disease. you cannot cure cancer, you cannot cure diabetes, you cannot cure Alzheimer's but you can cure alcohol by stopping the behavior/pattern of drinking and then it is cured!

HereIAm321

When anyone says they're "cured," it doesn't sit right with me. It can often lead to hubris and then relapse.

That being said, I think it's definitely a disease. However, we always have the *choice* to seek out help for our disease.

HereIAm321

And that choice to seek out help usually happens when we hit our personal rock bottoms.

fairlyuncertain

IMO, Alcoholism is a lot like type 2 diabetes. In t2, a person's pancreas cannot handle sugars & carbohydrates in the same way a 'normal' person could. T2, if caught early, can be completely managed w/lifestyle and diet changes. However, one can never go back to junk food & expect to thrive.

But like alcoholics who choose to ignore their physical differences, a diabetic who does not change their lifestyle faces dire consequences to their health, and death. In addition, their family suffers b/c of the ongoing disease. After a certain point, the pancreas cannot keep up and is so damaged that a lifetime of medications are necessary....like alcoholism, the earlier it's arrested, the better. Like alcoholism, the toxins circulating in the blood damage thought processes and personality.
And like alcoholism, our acceptance and changed behavior can make our lives so much better, practically 'normal!'

freshstart57

I am cured, you betcha. The cure is to never drink again, and I got that one. Anyone who thinks that they are cured of their addiction and then consumes their poison again was never cured in the first place.

That AMA determination was made in the context of Marty Mann and R Brinkley Smithers who lobbied and funded this activity in the absence of any scientific study or supporting evidence. Marty Mann achieved her goal of public exposure for AA and Smithers achieved his of gaining access to medical insurance funding for his clinic which is still in operation. http://www.baldwinresearch.com/alcoholism.cfm

It's also noted that even among 12 step adherents, AA members who are medical doctors discount this disease concept of alcoholism. Is Alcoholism a Disease?

Dee74

This is one of those perennial topics where people tend to have strong beliefs and all kinds of documentary and anecdotal evidence to either back their ideas up, or dismiss someone elses....

I'm not sure it matters what we think it is nearly as much as what we do about it.

D

Justfor1

I feel as if I used the "disease concept" of alcoholism as a excuse to keep drinking. The concept never really helped me stop drinking or make me feel better. I have accepted that when I pick up a drink I become a anti-social type criminal. Also, I never really felt that society viewed alcoholism as a disease anyways. Yes, the AMA declared a disease in the 50's but, in my opinion, that does not help people. Diseases like cancer, MS, diabities, ect....effect the individual. However, alcoholism/drug addiction effect families & the overall society.

HereIAm321

FreshStart, I like your viewpoint on curing oneself by simply not drinking.

I started my sober quest using AVRT, and it's still the underlying foundation of my sobriety -- I don't drink.

However, I also use AA as a resource of tremendous social support and understanding.

I just like to sample it all. What have I got to lose? If it helps my sobriety, I'll TAKE it!

JillyJill74

I just responded to something similar. I have a father who since I can remember always had a drink in his hand, still to this day. Now, no one in his family was an alcoholic so you could ask, how did that start? But, I think it's definitely hereditary...disease as they say, but also observation, habits. Like I said on another thread, I grew up in clubs my dad belonged to and we would go for specials on dinners or whatever, well, at 9 years old, what are you seeing? Everyone drinking. That's what I thought adults do. You drink. I never imagined there were adults who actually went weeks or months without drinking. Absurd! I think it's a combination. I was out with my fiancé the other night for dinner at a nice pub and I look at the bar section and there is a little girl with her dad all propped up at the bar while he drank. That struck such a nerve with me. I felt so angry that he brought her there. Why not get a table at least? So I feel she is going to grow up thinking that's normal. So definitely a combination of heredity and observation.

thisisme

It is my OPINION that it's a choice. It is the cornerstone of my sobriety method.
I am cured, and if I am the only one that believes that that is just fine with me.

john44

This is how I think about it also. While an interesting point of discussion and a very worthy subject of more study and research, it matters very little in my sobriety.

shauninspain

From a young age I felt very at odds with the world. Scared, worried, unhappy, worried, confused, worried and worried lol. Alcohol took those feelings away, and naturally I kept doing it. It became a mental addiction before a physical one. I'm not sure of it is a disease. But I did suffer from a Dis-Ease, and still can.

neferkamichael

I'm convinced that chemical substance abuse causes disease in a person. As society as a whole gains more knowledge of the world we live in, the ability to more accurately describe the physical world allows us to more clearly understand whats going on. It was only 400 years ago that Galileo was going to be put to death for clearly proving that the earth is not the center of the universe. It was only 600 years ago the the bubonic plague killed have the human race. Not a single human being got it right in that time as to the cause of the disease. We are only in our infancy of understanding addiction.

scoteesh

Some interesting replies and thoughtful opinion.

Thanks