ThatWasTheOldMe

I am curious what people think.

Fly N Buy

I prefer to focus on the how and not the why - solution vs problem. How are you today??

ThatWasTheOldMe

I'm great. 9 days sober.
Couldn't drink if I wanted to.

How are you?

Dee74

This is one of those perennial questions.
It was also something that kept me drinking while I thought about it.

Now I think it's a condition I can absolutely manage - even nullify - with commitment and support...

but really - what I think it is, is always way less important than what I do about it.

D

ThatWasTheOldMe

But if there was a medical procedure or specific treatment that could cure you of alcoholism with minimal side effects, would you recommend it to someone suffering from alcoholism?

Forward12

It's a mental illness in our subconscious minds that falsely tells us that we need alcohol, which our conscious minds know simply isn't true, as for the back and forth battle with addiction.

MrMcTell

The excerpts from Under the Influence in the stickies here are very eye opening on this subject. I honesty thought that after 20 years of boozing I knew everything about alcoholism, but that was stupid addict logic. It was amazing to read a pathology of the illness and nod my head as to how it mirrored my experience so closely. Check it out if you haven't already!

9 days is great BTW. Keep going.

SteelRes211

I had people tell me it was simply a choice but as I progressed over the years drinking something in my head switched on and then it was off to the races.

waynetheking

I refer to it as rather an affliction instead of a disease. Our body's lack a certain enzyme to properly break down the alcohol once consumed therefore causing us to crave more to the point of death. It then becomes a deadly insidious disease. It's an odd beast for sure. But if you NEVER have drank alcohol how would you know you had the disease. You certainly would not die from it. So I think it's a combination of both. An affliction that turns into a disease once over consumption is reached.

Dee74

Cure to me suggests a way to 'drink normally'.
There's no cure.

We can all share our personal experience of what works for us, so long as we remember there's no one size fits all solution.

D

thomas11

Its one of those questions that I think you can make it as complicated as you want to make it or very simple. On the complicated spectrum you can talk about genetic predisposition, stimulating the pleasure centers of the brain and an increase in endorphin's and neurotransmitters etc...

I choose the more simple route (I'm too lazy to think much). The simple approach tells me that I don't drink normally, it was ruining my life, it cost me tremendously financially and damn near lost my marriage over it. So any rational person when they came to their senses would have to admit that alcohol needs to be eliminated. Period. I eliminated it and so far have no regrets at all. In fact I'm in the best physical condition I've been in 17 years.

Grungehead

In my experience it doesn't matter if alcoholism is a disease, illness, malady or condition...all that matters is that I accept that I have it and that I treat it. My experience has also been that alcoholism affects me not only physically, but mentally and spiritually as well. It's when I started treating all three aspects of alcoholism that I felt I had found a permanent solution to the disease/illness/malady/condition.

NulaMeansZero

I like this!

NulaMeansZero

and this too! great way to look at it ....

racingthoughts

There are a few ways professionals and society look at alcoholism and addiction in general

The Morality Model
-Drinking/using are immoral choices, and the addict deserves punishment (usually jail) as the main method of determent.

The Temperance Model
-The problem lies primarily within the substance and not the user. If the alcoholic hadn't picked up their first drink, this problem could have been entirely avoided. Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign.

The Medical Model (what you're probably asking about)
-Alcoholism/Addiction are medical ailments that can be treated medically. This is the mindset behind Vivitrol and Antabuse. I personally have doubts into whether someone can maintain lasting sobriety this way relying solely on medical intervention.

The Social Model
-We're a product of our environments/people around us. If we surrounded addicts with better people in better places, they'll have no reason to use. Reasonable in some cases, I have doubts for most.

The Disease Model
-What AA/NA are based on. Alcoholism is an obsession of the mind and an allergy of the body. Alcoholics embrace a spiritual solution to their problem. Essentially, the obsession is redirected and through personal charity, a more fulfilling life is achieved. This is the most common concept in recovery worldwide.

Each model has both their efficacy potential and possible drawbacks. I generally see addiction as a combination of all of the above. Hope this helps you think about this a little more. Regardless of the roots, here you are, and what you do moving forward is all that matters.

JamesfrmEngland

I used to say no (and I am a medic) but my attitude has softened. If one of the definitions of disease or illness is a disruption of structure or function not caused by injury and produces symptoms then alcohol addiction is surely one and I can't argue with that. I think my own prejudice probably stems from what society tells me, my upbringing and that it is quite a 'self-inflicted disease' (imo) rather then ones that's afflicted upon someone with no control, but once again almost all diseases are at least partially self-inflicted so that's my prejudice once again.

PhoenixJ

Genetics, medication, cultural norms, allergy, disorder, a syndrome.......and of course the old cliché..A DISEASE'.

I will explain why it is sometimes used as a cliché


Can the 'ism' in alcohol be cured? Can a psychopath be diagnosed from cellular brain differences with a prenatal test?
The difficulty with alcoholism is it does not fit into just a physical or just a non-physical realm. It is both. There are the physical, chemical- cellular effects on the individual that lead to cognitive dysfunction (from forgetting the night b4, to permanent brain damage), liver damage or oesophageal varicies.
BUT- there is social damage, from family experiencing the lies, cheating, secretive behaviours- turning a person they knew into an addicted, obsessive monster. There is the effect of absenteeism from work because of hangovers, being fired for poor work performance, shattered credibility..etc
If a loved one asks why the alcoholic keeps drinking- the alcie may explain it is because it is a disease, genetics.....seemingly to hide their unacceptable behaviour behind a label.

A diabetic has never been accused of being a bad person because their body has a dysfunctional relationship with simple sugars.

So alcoholism is both physical, mental and social. It damages the alcoholic- and anyone around them. The obsessional need to drink- regardless of consequences is very hard to define in terms of a 'cure'.

ThatWasTheOldMe

I personally see my OWN alcoholism as a behavioral health issue and coping mechanism. But this is why I'm in therapy... I want a professional to help me get to the bottom of it.

Nothing happened to me that's so horrific I have to drink myself to death.

ThatWasTheOldMe

Yep.
The medical model is the model I accept; coupled with the social model. Antabuse + therapy for this guy. I do meetings too, but I'm not an AA enthusiast (yet... perhaps?).

Wholesome

No disease here. I've used AVRT to recover and in AVRT the belief is that we have healthy brain with a rogue survival drive driven by pleasure from alcohol and drugs that tells us to continue to use despite the negative consequences. We are all programmed to seek out pleasure and avoid pain and alcohol/drugs hijacks our reward system through overuse until that survival drive get perverted and starts to believe that we need to use to survive. I don't call a robust lust for pleasure a disease.