zjw

there are some common factors a lot of alcoholics seem to have anxiety / depression issues what came first the booze or that? who knows. in some cases it was there already in others it wasnt. Also a lot of alcholics seemt obe well rather obsessive. Many are all or nothing type individuals.

You do find it seems some float through who dont have any of the above issues sober up and go on with there lives. they just liked to party to hard too often or something. But they could also be seen as the all or nothing types as well.

there are some common factors involved. it doesnt seem like your typical healthy normal guy just becomes an alcoholic. Of course it could be argued what is normal and what is healthy.

Sioux

Mental illness is a disease that requires treatment if you don't want to go insane or hurt yourself and others. I view alcoholism the same way. I must admit that I frequently must "resign from the debating society and quit asking myself which came first - the chicken or the egg."

The big questions for me are: what am I going to do for my recovery today that is going to keep me mentally, spiritually and physically healthy? No I am not going to run a marathon, but I am not going to eat a loaf of bread either. And I may read something useful, write, savor the beauty when I can, take a shower, ask my Creator for guidance, maybe even say "thank you for another day."

That's just me.

Andante

Yes! It's all this AND MORE!!! Folks, sign up today for the world's most versatile and insidious all-in-one eradicator of that pesky condition, humanity. Alcoholism!!! -- it's a medical disease, AND a mental illness, AND a maladaptive behavior, AND a spiritual malady, AND a sociological scourge, AND a hereditary predisposition, AND a bad habit -- ALL IN ONE!

So don't delay, respond to that urge to drink NOW, and destroy your life!

Operators are standing by!

LBrain

BUT WAIT!

Act now and we'll throw in "ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY DISORDER" at no extra cost.

Turtle82

Respectfully.... doesn't matter. Different strokes for different folks. Only similarities are we can't drink without our lives becoming unmanageable. Dwelling on such as this is merely a mental geographic designed to run from growth. Reach for serenity instead of continuing chaos.

dsmaxis10

What I do believe is what the big book says it's spiritual mental and physical. I don't believe abstinence will just do the job. What the bb says a personality change to bring about recovery from alcoholism.

Rob32u

There's no diagnostic test that can determine if someone is an alcoholic. Unless one is ever developed, that means it's not a somatic condition. In other words, the susceptibility to alcohol addiction is no more or less a disease than susceptibility to nicotine addiction. We don't say that someone has a disease just because they will likely develop addiction if they start smoking. I don't see why drinking should be thought of differently.

gleefan

I don't know the correct categorization for alcoholism, but I can tell you that my response to my alcoholism has been a physical, spiritual, and psychological approach.

First and foremost I cannot drink. My life hinges on that simple truth. But my recovery hinges on so much more than not drinking. It requires a wholesale honest inventory of myself, acceptance, humility, and vulnerability. In living this way, my desire to drink has vanished.

Whether you call it a disease or a mental illness, the bottom line is that you need to take action to get relief.

fini

seems most people who try cigarettes for just a little while get addicted easily, quickly and hard.
seems a lot of people who try drinking for a while do not get addicted whatsoever.
they turn out to be "normal drinkers".

Rob32u

It's likely there is a somatic or genetic component to susceptibility to certain addictions. But it's not medically accurate or helpful to call such susceptibility a disease. A disease is a malfunction. Why would susceptibility to nicotine addiction not be considered a malfunction while susceptibility to alcohol addiction would be? However, whether the addiction itself could be called a disease is another question.

Rob32u

And I think it's an Important distinction, because even though when you are recovering from alcoholism you certainly need to be careful not to relapse, I think it's wrong to continue to think of yourself as an alcoholic long after you've stopped drinking. Thinking like that just helps keep alcohol on your mind and to define yourself in terms of alcohol. If you're not drinking anymore , then what was wrong with you is no longer wrong with you.
The consequences of relapsing can be more severe than for smoking, because smoking doesn't cause you to do things that ruin your life. But the principle is still the same.

MelindaFlowers

Oh yes, there was more work to be done after sobering up. I thought of the daily blackout drinking and hangovers as a hatchet lodged firmly in my skull. Once it was removed I could finally start to work on those darn headaches!

Gottalife

Thanks Pete,
That was a very interesting link. The description of the alcoholic, especially the lack of "alcoholic personality" prior to commencing drinking fit me to a tee. I can only ever remember drinking because I loved the effect and was always looking for it. Every first drink was taken with the sole intention of having a good time. The screwy personality stuff came later in the progression.

Thanks again Peter. I really enjoyed that read

JaneLane

Thank you for sharing this link. It was interesting to read about the alcoholic personality and the element of shame, definitely.

Masonreed

I think it's just a mental condition. From time to time I learned that you can stop drinking if you want, no matter how withdrawal symptoms are strong. If one has willing to give up then he can do it. Then, it's neither a mental illness nor disease, simply something that you've not to be interested in anymore, for the good of your friends and your family.

fini

it's wrong to continue to think of yourself as an alcoholic long after you've stopped drinking. Thinking like that just helps keep alcohol on your mind and to define yourself in terms of alcohol. If you're not drinking anymore , then what was wrong with you is no longer wrong with you.

ah; we're not on the same page here.
drinking wasn't what was wrong with me; drinking was what i did in an attempt to fix what was wrong with me.
and no, it doesn't make me think of alcohol.

when i first got sober, i assumed, just as you say, that stopping drinking would mean what was "wrong" with me would no longer be "wrong" with me.

after a long sober while, i came to see that that wasn't so for me.

maybe it will be different for you.

fini

welcome, Masonreed.
hope you find something useful to you here.

yes, i like the word "condition", too.

what brings you here?

spryte

Is alcoholism a disease or mental illness? Maybe neither. Depends on the person. Depends on how you define it. Alcoholism is something REAL and SERIOUS, I know that. I know that from personal experience and from being around others who have gone through similar things.

I had my most serious mental health situation happen when I was stone cold sober, and it wasn't from alcohol withdrawal. And my mental health continues to be a big thing in my life to manage. Managing mood and stress, taking my medication, having lifestyle balance...all things I need to actively work on for wellness.

My honest opinion is alcoholism is not a mental illness and it is not a disease. It is a very serious psychological maladaptive condition. At the point where it becomes physical dependence, it becomes an illness.

Just being honest. That is not to say that it's not SERIOUS. Because it is. It is deadly serious. But neither of the concepts of disease or mental illness really jive for me when I consider alcohol abuse.

It is confounding that something that may not be a disease or illness in the strict definitions of the terms can nonetheless reap havoc MORE than a disease or illness. Take the horrible consequences of alcoholism, and you think, 'It MUST be an illness!! It is that serious.' But if I am honest as I work this back, I conclude, in my opinion, that it is not a disease or illness, in most cases.

murrill

I wrote a post to this thread last night, but it seems to have disappeared. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something. I'm going to ignore it; I do that sometimes.

I am a product of the disease concept-12-step inspired treatment industry. While I have some cynical views on that practice today, it worked nonetheless. I realize that I had significant depression, PTSD, and perhaps an Axis II somewhere in there, secondary to traumas. Alcohol was my response to that, until it stopped working. I find it difficult to separate the two.
I responded to the idea of a alcoholism as disease, probably because I like clinical explanations. To me it meant that I was not responsible for getting it, but I was responsbile for what I did about it. In short, I found self-forgiveness and hope all in one. Of course, I've known others who opted to believe that having a disease made them responsbile for neither, which justified continued drinking. Whether alcoholism is a disease or a mental health issue is not relevant to me today: I don't know that I would do anything differently. A religious person might respond well to the "repent, sinner!" school of thought and find his/her way in a faith-based support group. I was fortunate to find what spoke to me.

freshstart57

This may indeed be true, that there was a pre-existing condition that needed to be addressed before you started drinking, and starting to drink and stopping drinking did not change that.

Maybe it is also true that others who have a similar thing 'wrong' never drank at all. They may choose to address this. Or not. But their similar condition and the means by which it needs to be addressed doesn't have a single thing to do with alcoholism.

For me it was quit drinking permanently, then see what needs work after that. What needed fixing certainly wasn't an alcohol addiction. By quitting permanently, alcohol became completely irrelevant. I like it like that.