Kaily

I was contacted by an addiction counsellor today to arrange an initial assessment for next week.
We talked a bit on the phone he then asked me if I believed drinking was a choice or a disease.
I am curious as to what others would of answered?


I will let you know how I answered which I don't know if was right or wrong later.

sleepie

Either way the cure is yours if you choose.

I would have said a bit of both and depending on the person.

Berrybean

I'd answer that I think it a two-fold problem or the body and mind (disease if you like) that we can manage, just as other allergies or medical conditions are managed. Well, that's what I'd answer now. What I'd have said when I first got sober, I don't know. Everything was a bit all over the place in my head to think about stuff like that back then. I was still getting my head round that I was one.

STGHealthyWoman

My answer is "yes" it is both. When I was younger I made the choice to drink and I remember many times I made the choice not to drink. Through the years as I have continued to make that choice, it was no longer a choice, it became a disease. I was in rehab years back and I remember my counselor saying something about a "switch". Some people choose to drink and the switch never happens. Some people choose to drink and the switch happens and they become dependent.

I wish I could pinpoint the day right before the switch happened so I could have made the choice way back then never to pick up a drink again.

MIRecovery

All I know for sure I have it and I choose not to drink with help from my higher power

AdelineRose

I would say both.

I think there is usually a mental illness (in myself at least) that led to self medicating with drugs. I believe that I choose to start using drugs and then to continue to take them even after I was starting to get physically and mentally addicted. So believe it started as a choice to use drugs which then as time went on and I became mentally and physically dependent and then addicted then I believe that I then caused myself to have the disease of addiction when it no longer really was a choice (at least mentally I felt that..I would say it is a mental disease).

All I know that now I am sober and in recovery that I have the CHOICE not to pick up and use or drink ever again, but that the mental disease of addiction can be re-activated the second I slip and therefore I refuse to slip up or fail.

Regardless, the end is the same, I cannot drink or use drugs EVER again if I want the life I truly deserve.

EndGameNYC

I've yet to meet a single person who chose to be an alcoholic, but I've met many who've chosen to get sober.

tomsteve

was it asked if drinking OR alcoholism was a choice or disease?

for a normal person that can take it or leave it, its a choice.

for an alcoholic that has crossed the line into full blown alcoholism, its not a choice.

uncorked

I like thinking of it as a choice. When I was pregnant, I didn't drink -- that was a choice. I chose to start drinking again when I had my son. Ten years later, I chose to stop.

IvanMike

This.

In my experience, there is such a thing as the disease of addiction. I cannot become "not an addict", and if I choose to use, I don't always get to choose when to stop.

However, one I stop trying to justify getting loaded, I can choose to get and stay clean once day at a time.

Likewise, while I can't erase this disease of addiction from my being, each day I can choose to engage in recovery, which I have found to be the treatment.

The takeaway is that It's pointless to beat myself up for being an addict, but it is irresponsible and suicidal to not choose sobriety and recovery.

EndGameNYC

Spoiler Alert







I think the question your counselor asked is "Do you believe that alcoholism is a personal or moral failure, or do you believe that people lose the ability to stop drinking once they take the first drink?"

Some of the information you've gotten here may allow you to think it through and arrive at your own conviction.

aasharon90

I do believe it is a disease that affects
the mind and body. However, we have
a choice to chose to learn a program
of recovery to incorporate in all our
affairs or die by not accepting our
illness, disease and doing something
healthy and effective about it.

I chose to live with knowledge and
action of working with a recovery
program as my guideline instead of
becoming a statistic.

Wastinglife

I have been sober over 2 months. The first drink I take to break my sobriety is a choice. After that the disease takes over and I lose my ability to choose.

Bruno1979

It was a choice for me but I also think that it's a disease for some

zerothehero

Drinking is a choice; addiction is a disease.
Poor eating is a choice; diabetes is a disease.

AnvilheadII

if there wasn't SOME level of choice, NO ONE would ever get sober. we have moments of clarity.........sometimes blinding inspiration......sometimes a slow smoldering fire of want for some thing better.

it isn't that we can choose to NOT have the disease, it's a matter that we have a choice to keep it going or put it in remission. it is a rare disease that can be arrested by simply not doing ONE thing - without chemo, or gene therapy or radical changes to diet. WE can stop it from killing us if we become willing to NEVER drink again.

the disease is stubborn, and puts up a good fight. and while dormant when we are sober, DOES continue to "grow" - so the addict/alcoholic who relapses, especially after a period of sober time, the disease quickly catches up and progresses. and the return to sobriety becomes harder to enact.

some people can't eat peanuts, or even be in close proximity to them....or they go into anaphylactic shock and can die. they don't sit there with a peanut on the table and try to decide IF they should have it......they just stay away.

the alcoholic/addict mind says....oh yes, you DO want that peanut...come on, it will fine, trussssssssssssssst meeeeeeeeeee.

Lightning Bug

I believe that there neuro chemicals in our brains that predispose us to addictive behavior. But we as individuals choose to activate them by drinking or using. I hesitate to call it an addictive personality, but I bet we can all recall instances in which addictive behavior popped up before we even started drugs or alcohol. For me it was food. I was addicted to comfort eating which eventually turned into bulimia. I replaced bulimia with working. Then I replaced working with Xanax. Then replaced Xanax with alcohol. It wasn't the specific substance for me, it was being prone to addictive behavior. It seems to be hardwired in me. That is why I hesitate to name my drug of choice. I can't name it because my history of replacing addictions can't identify it.

Nonsensical

I would have answered honestly for myself.

I doubt your counselor was trying to solve the mystery of addiction. I think he was trying to learn about YOU.

Soberwolf

Kaily how are you doing yourself this afternoon

MidnightRider

I'd say...

My drinking started out as a choice.
Then turned into a disease.