Callas

I have read a number of posts on this forum where people refer to alcohol as “poison”. I am not sure about this. Alcohol is poison for us, the alcoholics.

The majority of people I know drink alcohol responsibly and have no issue with it. A glass or two enhances a good meal and they may only drink once a week or even less often. It always goes with an occasion like a meal out or a birthday etc.

For obese people sugar may be poison. For people without a weight problem not.

I do not blame alcohol. I hold myself accountable for my failure to deal with this substance responsibly. I have no excuses. The character flaw is mine and mine only.

I do not consider this reality a sign of low self-esteem. On the contrary, I am prepared to take full responsibility for the agony, mess and the struggle that I have now and may have for the rest of my life. I also take some credit for my success so far and stay humble knowing that I can not let my guard go for a second.

I accept my weaknesses. I continue to work on them. It is never alcohol or work or a relationship or money or pressure or adversity or loss. But it is always me.

Dee74

The great thing about SR is there's always a wide array of views - and the space for everyone to hold their own opinions

D

brighterday1234

Robert88

I can see it like that. Thanks for sharing.

MantaLady

If you read many of the medical and scientific research papers regarding alcohol it is classed as a toxin. New research published in the Lancet says that there is no safe limit of alcohol for anyone to drink, that is it toxic to all humans and should be avoided. You don’t have to be an alcoholic with extreme intake to be impacted by the proven myriad of diseases that can be caused by consuming it. If someone who was healthy spend a night eating cake until they were sick and physically couldn’t eat any more they would just be sick, feel a bit horrid and would wake up fine the next day. If someone healthy drank all night till they were sick they could end up with alcohol poisoning and die, deaths from alcohol poisoning is rising at alarming rates globally. So technically alcohol is a poison, a legal and taxable and highly profitable poison.

So from a balanced and non alcoholic view the fact is this substance is poisonous to the human body.

When alcoholics refer to alcohol being a poison I think it is meant in a totally different way as a rule. It’s usually used to describe the toxic nature from a mental health perspective, being toxic and poisonous to relationships, self esteem, happiness, contentment, morals, integrity etc. xx

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Guener

I started my alcoholic life and behavior at a young age (14), when the brain is still maturing physically and certainly mentally. From this perspective I can definitely consider it a poison that may be partially responsible for the severity of my own addiction. Later, when I knew what I was doing, it fell on me to continue my path of consuming alcohol. Other drugs that I took didn't have the same compelling effect upon me that the alcohol did, it was my drug of choice that I focused upon. That's just my own story.

Finalround

To scare me straight I read articles on how the body processes alcohol. All reference it as a toxin that starts to attack each organ, blood vessel, muscle fiber and brain chemistry on the cellular level. Our bodies immediately stop doing all its normal duties to try and brake down and process it from our systems.
So, technically to me, that's the poison that alcohol is.
But I do appreciate your post.

August252015

good post Callas- I totally agree that we cannot blame the substance. It's also a valid point that alcohol is literally a poison, so everyone questioning how much they drink can only be a good thing. For us, it's just something we cannot have, for whatever reasons (I do believe there are multiple, such as genetics then use progressing to dependence, brain changes, etc).

entropy1964

I understand your OP. Its about personal accountability. The liquid is just a liquid. I'm responsible for whether or not I consume it and I can't drink, period.

But, that being said, it is a class 1 carcinogen. Like nicotine (which is considered a poison in a lot of countries), asbestos, formaldehyde and on and on. It is also converted to acetaldehyde in the liver, also a Class 1 carcinogen. Antabuse, a medication that alcoholics take that makes them so sick its designed to keep the addict from drinking, inhibits the production of acetaldehyde making the body incapable of 'processing' the booze....making it poisonous in essence because the liver can't properly flush the booze from the system.

So I dunno. Tomato, tomahto. But yes, most people drink it and think 'I don't feel good, think I'll stop'. I drink it and think 'I don't feel good, think I'll drink some more'. Why? Who knows.

DriGuy

People die from alcohol poisoning. So it must be a poison, although I hadn't really thought about it that way.

Happyvale

Alcohol: a colorless volatile flammable liquid that is produced by the natural fermentation of sugars and is the intoxicating constituent of wine, beer, spirits, and other drinks, and is also used as an industrial solvent and as fuel.

I think industrial solvents and fuels are poison...no?

abgator

And yet scientists continuously repeat that a glass of wine is good for you is beneficial.

The reality is that the old adage remains true: All things in moderation. The body is 100% capable of easily repairing itself from a couple drinks a week.

I think people in recover are greatly prone to hyperbole simple because we can't handle it.

August252015

Yeah, abgator, it's not hyperbole to me and people in recovery who have the kind of life I want.

FreeOwl

I understand your point.... I think......

However - we should be honest as a society.

Alcohol LITERALLY IS a poison.

noun
noun: poison; plural noun: poisons

1.
a substance that is capable of causing the illness or death of a living organism when introduced or absorbed.
synonyms: toxin, venom; More

MLD51

I find it helps me to remember that alcohol actually is poison in a literal sense. It's also poison to the way of life I have built since I quit drinking. And absolutely, I hold myself accountable for the act of drinking poison to excess (up until the point when I became dependent, at which point I believe I was actually not in much control over it). I hold myself accountable for the awful things I did when drinking, but I also temper that with the reality that I was not capable of making good rational decisions when drinking. So for me, it's both poison, and accountability. I don't like to go down the "character defect" road when it comes to how I drank.

MantaLady

That may have been true in the past but not now. Reputable scientists and medical researchers are not saying that. Hundreds of years ago philosophers and scientists used to say the world was flat, doctors used to prescribe10 cigarettes a day to people (including children) who worked in the coal mines in the U.K. less than a 100 years ago as it was believed to help expel the dust from their lungs.

MindfulMan

I'm with the OP.

Many things we ingest are "poison," it depends on the dosage and frequency. Many substances are carcinogenic. There's a link between animal fat and heart disease, yet we don't call butter "poison." The health risks from consuming a steak are not zero, yet most of us don't see the occasional ribeye as "poison."

Light drinking carries a tiny increased risk of certain cancers, and possibly a slightly reduced risk of stroke or heart attack. Neither of which should be a factor of whether you choose to drink or not. The health risks to the occasional or "normal" drinker are extremely minimal. They're not zero, but so are a lot of other behaviors that we tolerate.

I don't need to exaggerate the dangers of drinking in the general population to convince myself that alcohol is a poison to ME, as I will never drink moderately. The health risks of heavy drinking are clearcut, and that's the only way I will drink. Heavily.

DriGuy

MantaLady:
Back in college, my roommate and I would go to the liquor store as a Friday ritual, where we would contemplate the various forms of alcohol available and eventually choose one to take home. During one visit, my roommate picked up a leaflet from the counter probably put there by the wine industry. It was devoted to extolling the virtues of drinking wine, including the physical, medicinal, and spiritual advantages. It included a photo of a nurse serving a patient in bed with a silver serving tray, a wine glass, and a full bottle of wine. The caption under the photo stated that doctors often prescribe wine to their hospital patients. We chuckled over the photo, but the thing that sent us into hysterics was the final sentence declaring that, "Wine is God's gift to us and proof that he wants us to be happy."