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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: uk
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Well at least my original thought that behavioural vs disease was not my imagination! Not only have I seen it in debates here but it is reflected in proffessional/acedemic debate.
Managing alcoholism as a disease - By Thomas R. Hobbs, Ph.D., M.D. Covers history of disease debate.
biopsychosocial - so wouldn't that be a mixture of biological, psychological and social factors? The whole article reflects a behaviour vs disease pathway in the debate through the last century.
I have to ask myself why this hasn't been the case with the type of diabetes induced by consuming too much sugar? Or obesity? Both of these can be clearly linked to free will and behaviour and yet there is no debate.
Another anomoly seems to be the feeling that to be classed as a disease it must be lifelong - why? (I'm not saying alcohol abuse/addiction isn't or is). If an obese person changes habits, gets treatment, or both but then loses enough weight they are no longer counted as obese. Their habits often return, and yet whenever they are controlled and weight lost (lack of symptom) they are no longer classed as obese.
The article also raises that medical proffessionals possibly have a distorted view due to mostly treating 'end stage' alcoholism without being active with earlier stages.
There's no way I can be certain my single opinion is correct, but I can't help but feel these things do matter. Perhaps not so much in our individual life paths but more likely for future generations.
Alcoholism should not be judged as a problem of willpower, misconduct, or any other unscientific diagnosis. The problem must be accepted for what it is—a biopsychosocial disease with a strong genetic influence, obvious signs and symptoms, a natural progression and a fatal outcome if not treated. In the past 10 years, the medical profession’s and the public’s acceptance of smoking as an addictive disease has resulted in reducing nicotine use in the United States. I feel that similar strides can be made with alcohol abuse. We must begin, as we did with nicotine, by educating and convincing our own colleagues that alcoholism is a disease. We must also emphasize that physicians have played a significant role in reducing the mortality and morbidity from nicotine use through patient education. Through strong physician intervention, I believe that we can achieve similar results with alcohol abuse. empahisis added
biopsychosocial - so wouldn't that be a mixture of biological, psychological and social factors? The whole article reflects a behaviour vs disease pathway in the debate through the last century.
I have to ask myself why this hasn't been the case with the type of diabetes induced by consuming too much sugar? Or obesity? Both of these can be clearly linked to free will and behaviour and yet there is no debate.
Another anomoly seems to be the feeling that to be classed as a disease it must be lifelong - why? (I'm not saying alcohol abuse/addiction isn't or is). If an obese person changes habits, gets treatment, or both but then loses enough weight they are no longer counted as obese. Their habits often return, and yet whenever they are controlled and weight lost (lack of symptom) they are no longer classed as obese.
The article also raises that medical proffessionals possibly have a distorted view due to mostly treating 'end stage' alcoholism without being active with earlier stages.
There's no way I can be certain my single opinion is correct, but I can't help but feel these things do matter. Perhaps not so much in our individual life paths but more likely for future generations.
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