Alcoholism is a disease?
 

Type into google "alcoholism is a disease" and you will find far more links explaining why it is not. Why is this?

The mainstream accepts that it is in fact a disease, but they cannot provide any empirical evidence to suggest that it is.

Most of the time, I cannot control how much I drink despite knowing the consequences. However, I believe I make the choice to drink, and by drinking more and more we undoubtedly lose judgement.

As a fellow alcoholic, I would like to hear your input on the subject.

Hmmm, I'm conflicted on this myself. I think it is a definite mental disorder, at the very least.

I am an alcoholic and find it a bit of a stretch to claim it's a disease. The American Medical Association declared it a disease in the 50's and most doctors will tell you it's a disease. However, they are just being politically correct. Most don't believe in the disease concept. I think alcoholics grasp onto the concept to make themselves feel better. I feel as if it's moral shortcoming in drinking to excess. I am beginning to believe that I must find a spiritual solution to me severe alcohol & drug addiction.

do people say smoking and opium addiction is a disease?

Hi Sorensen. I tend to agree with you. Most doctors don't believe it is a disease in any medical sense, even though they all agree that alcoholism and other addictions have severe health implications. It is true that the association of medical doctors who are also AA members (International Doctors in AA), overwhelmingly agree (80%) with the rest of the medical community (75%) that this addiction is not a disease. Medical professionals are far less likely than the general public to support this disease theory, and I feel that is significant. Shouldn't they know? Pronouncements by various bodies are driven by political, ideological and economic considerations, and not by any empirical evidence.

Some folks think believing that it is a disease is helpful for their sobriety, some don't. Ultimately it is up to you to make this decision for yourself.

no because it isn't, it's an addiction, we can be addicted to almost anything. Saying you have a disease is an easy out

So many smart people in SR here, I think we used to numb our over active and brilliant minds, just a theory

Does it matter? Either way, we have to control it and only we can do that. I don't worry about the disease or not disease argument. I just take certain actions not to go back to it.

Where is that popcorn guy? Lol

Tamer, yes it does matter. Because people who believe 100% that it is a disease are sooner or later going to be disappointed.
Some alcoholics I know tell everyone (even co-workers) that they are a "recovery alcoholic". Just imagine if the person your telling had a family member killed by drunken driving! Or imagine if they were robbed the week prior and the robber smelled of booze! Many alcoholics cross the line into criminal behavior. No other medical disease causes this behavior. The criminal type alcoholics give the bad image that some people embrace.

I find that cigarette smokers have been especially stigmitized the last 10 years. The new laws keep restricted where they can smoke. Now CVS and Walgreens are going to stop selling cigarettes in a few months.

Turning, there are mental ailments that go untreated that cause people to do the same. Unfortunately, I have no control over that, or how people view alcoholism. I can control what I do. Disease or not, that is freeing.

No matter what I or anyone else calls it, there is nothing "easy" about my alcoholism.

People who invoke the disease model as an excuse to continue drinking don't suffer any less than those who frame it as an "addiction" or a choice.

Classifying alcoholism as a disease carries some weight as a metaphor for some, but not for everyone. When the AMA classified it as a disease in 1955, it was partly because they didn't exactly know what to call it or how to treat it, and partly because, as a disease, they could bill for it. Health care reform in the States and health insurance benefits for employees proliferated at around the same time. This coincided with the advent of Social Security disability coverage for medical conditions.

In the end, nothing matters to me as much as what I do about my alcoholism and all that comes with it; what I call it is trivial in the face of what it's done to me.

I use to sit in rehabs and get lectured about how I have a disease. But, in the real world people were not treating me like I was sick. They were treating me as if I was a criminal. No one seemed to give me any compassion. I became the stereotype of an alcoholic. And I still hold a lot of resentment towards the rehab folks who insisted I would be treated as if I was sick. My spiritual solution is all I have left. It contradicts the disease concept. And if it doesn't work, I am going to die.

I'm sorry that happened to you. It is unfortunate that you have run into people like this. I personally have never been made to feel like a criminal because I'm an alcoholic. Pretty much everyone I have ever told either is compassionate and congratulates me on sobriety or wants to know if i think they are an alcoholic, lol! A lot of normal drinkers drive drunk. I'm an alcoholic who has never driven drunk. I don't think people automatically assume I am a criminal just because I'm an alcoholic. And if they do, who cares? I know I'm not.

Fwiw- I am in agreement with you about the spiritual solution. :)

I highly recommend watching this it explains the brain chemistry and science behind addiction. It is a disease like ADHD or depression, not a moral failing. http://youtu.be/4Hz6-2NwRzE

I personally don't find much value in the argument. I cannot control my drinking so I do not drink. I have realized this over decades of "research" where my hypothesis was always that I could somehow control my drinking. And it was always proven wrong. The only solution is sobriety, for me at least.

no way.
not a disease.
i chosen habit like habit to smoke, a habit t eat fatty foods.

“Alcohol ruined me financially and morally, broke my heart and the hearts of too many others.

Even though it did this to me and it almost killed me and I haven't touched a drop of it in seventeen years, sometimes I wonder if I could get away with drinking some now.

I totally subscribe to the notion that alcoholism is a mental illness because thinking like that is clearly insane.”
― Craig Ferguson, American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot

D

There are some very wise passages on this topic in a recent article by Eve Tushnet (5 Things the Disease Model Gets Wrong About Addiction | The American Conservative):

"When I was drinking my will really was damaged. The scriptural metaphor of slavery, bondage of the will, resonates with me more than metaphors of disease, but they’re getting at the same sense of helpless compulsion….

"This is the point that both sides of the disease/choice divide get wrong. Of course your will is constrained. Your background, what you were taught (explicitly or implicitly) growing up, your brain chemistry, your mental health—a whole host of factors out of your control, unchosen and not always even noticed, constrain your choices. But within that landscape of constraint we often do choose. We make huge leaps or crawl tiny, painful inches up or down. You’re not trapped in your brain or your past—at least, not always. But even from the inside, you can’t always see the moments when you’re free."