Is alcoholism really a legitimate disease, or is it a choice?
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M$8 Answers
Diagnosed by a Ph.D medical doctor LADAC and primary care physician as having acute alcoholism with severe physical and mental dependency in the year 2006. I will die if I drink again.
Alcoholism is a disease. Alcohol abuse is another issue often congruent with alcoholism but the one can be a problem drinker and not be an alcoholic. One cannot be an alcoholic without being a problem drinker.
There is a difference between alcohol abuse and drinking alcoholically.
Like other manifestations of addiction an alcoholic does not have a choice "not to drink" and alcoholic HAS to drink on order not to be sick. The cycle of addiction is the same regardless of the manifestation of the addiction. A person who abuses alcohol will after suffering negative consequences from their drinking (loss of a job, fighting, car accident or DUI etc.) will quit or stop or slow down and maybe even stop for good. A alcohol abuser might be making the wrong choices but they do have the choice to stop.
An alcoholic will not stop at all.. they cannot.. despite any negative consequence that they may suffer as a result of their drinking. The alcoholic will just pick up again the very second they are released from jail or one they get home from being fired from a job etc. An alcoholic can see these are negative and sometimes disastrous consequences but still will pick back up and they are off and running again.
To an alcoholic the disease is the cure and the cure is the disease. They have to drink to stop feeling they way the do, either physically terrible and/or mentally terrible usually both. The disease in that they have to and the cure from feeling the way they do is alcohol..more alcohol. With zero care for consequence.
An alcoholic cannot get drunk.. there is not enough booze in the world to get an alcoholic drunk and an alcoholic cannot get sober or they will die... not just feel like they are dying ...really die. A problem drinker will suffer consequences from drinking but be able to stop or at least learn to stop.
It is a choice to be a problem drinker.
It is not a choice to be an alcoholic and one will only stop via life in prison, commitment to a institution, death, or treatment.. daily treatment.
Be well and you are always welcome at my meetings.
sober 30 months.. just came from a meeting.
http://www.medicinenet.com/alcohol_abuse_and_alcoholism/article.htm
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M$
Brain scans can show the way different people's brains react to alcohol. Those scans show that people break down into three different groups. A minority of people's whose brains don't respond much to alcohlol and don't like it much. The majority whose brain responds by lighting up and who enjoy alcohol but are mostly able to control themselves. And another minority whose brain responds intensely, lighting up like Christmas tree. Those people get an immense high and have great difficulty in controlling their use.
This is part of a science show that covered all these issues:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1oUteLOPOw
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M$
I watched the south Park Episode "Bloody Mary" but I didn't feel they did their research for several reasons. I think alcoholism is a disease, and it is a disease people can claim they have even if they don't, like they did on the episode. Closed AA meetings are for alcoholics only they get 1 hour to work on their disease of alcoholism, and even if you are court ordered and not an alcoholic you are not allowed in their meetings.
There are genes that run in families that have been proven to carry a higher rate of alchoholism. My family has a high rate of alcoholics in it. My father, aunt, grandfather, and brother have all had problems with it. My husband was an alcoholic for many years, went through intensive treatment, and is now in his 11th year of sobriety. He is doing wonderful, but still has cravings that I do not have. It is different that what person with normal brain chemistry experiences. The alcohol changes the brain chemistry to where it is never quite normal again.
I went to college and have a degree in Drug and Alcohol counseling. This is a hige problem in America. People think that it is as easy for an alcoholic to walk away from a drink as the rest of us. It is not.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alcoholism/DS00340
Graduated in 2009 as a Certified Drug and Alcohol Counselor and did 300 hour internship at Substance Abuse Facility
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M$
Back in my husbands drinking days, he had a DUI where he was blood tested at the hospital. I only believe this because I have seen the paperwork straight from the police and hospital. His BAC (blood alcohol level) was 0.55. For most people this is legally DEAD!!! In his case, he was still walking and talking because his tolerance was so high. At the time he had the highest recorded BAC in the state without being a mortality.
Considering the legal limit to drive is .08, this is a horrifying number. his tolerance was so high that his doctor figured most days he probably had a BAC of around 0.30 just to function. He could get up in the morning and would have to take a drink of Vodka just so that he could walk to the bathroom. His body had adjusted to where he had to have alcohol in his system or he could not function.
Today, thanks to his DUI and a wreck into a powerpole he is sober and tells his story as a teaching tool. We are involved in the Beat the Heat program which is where we take cop cars out to the drag strips and let the local kids come race their cars against them. It is a good non alcohol way to teach kids that there are ways to have fun not drinking and driving.
I was hit from the rear one time by a drunk driver. He not only pushed my car like 400 feet down the road, but my trunk was crushed up to the back seats. He tried to leave the scene and thankfully the spectators, they made him wait for the police. He would not even get out of his van !!
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M$
And that organizations and institutions that promote the disease concept are doing harm to the individual and performing a disservice to the whole population.
Geneticists are very much aware that a predisposition does not dictate subsequent behavior and treatment professionals are very much aware that the programs they offer fail. Alcoholism is a choice not a disease.
----quote---
Repeated studies have shown that the average person, who could be diagnosed with a substance abuse problem, will discontinue use on their own 20 to 30 percent of the time. But, those who are exposed to AA and treatment and who are taught the disease concept have a drastically decreased chance of achieving sobriety. While treatment professionals are aware of program failure, governing organizations support and promote the adoption of 12 Step tenets into treatment programs for substance abusers. Families pay tens of thousands of dollars to help their loved ones only to place them in programs that follow guidelines of another failing program. Any program based on a program that fails will inevitably fail. For most, 12 Step has become synonymous with failure.
----end of quote--
The article found at the source was very extensive and it was able to explore a lot about alcoholism on both side, whether it is a disease or a choice. Read the full article at the source.
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M$
and (I couldn't edit) the first line says another misleading indistinction.
"Repeated studies have shown that the average person, who could be diagnosed with a substance abuse problem, will discontinue use on their own 20 to 30 percent of the time"
Substance abuse is NOT the same as addiction.
This confusion drags the addict into a discussion of choice (where they have none). A substance abuser chooses to abuse substances, an addict does not choose to use substances they do it because they are addicted and have a disease.
A person can abuse alcohol and maybe stop of their own 20% - 30% sounds right, someone addicted to alcohol cannot stop on their own, they need treatment and medical science has nothing for the disease of addiction 12 steps however statistically failure prone are the only proven successful treatment system for alcoholism.
This quote from that article
Families pay tens of thousands of dollars to help their loved ones only to place them in programs that follow guidelines of another failing program. Any program based on a program that fails will inevitably fail. For most, 12 Step has become synonymous with failure.
~endquote
Firstly it is misleading as 12 step programs are free.. absolutely free.
and it is not a testament to or proof of the failure of these 12 step programs at all, exactly the opposite, it is proof of the disease and its power. Addiction is addiction is addiction whether is is to alcohol, heroin, or nicotine etc. and so far 12 step programs have been the only thing that has helped addicts out with stopping the cycle of addiction.
Medical science has not done anything but be able to describe the symptoms of the disease and the withdrawal symptoms from the disease so where research and medicine has failed 12 step programs have succeeded.
And no matter what the treatment if the person afflicted with alcoholism does not truly want to stop drinking they will not... not because they are weak or have a choice but because they have a deadly disease that will kill them and is too powerful to overcome.
It is the negative viewpoint of the majority of the alcoholic that has kept the disease from being studied enough for science to treat effectively. As this tide changes and people who are addicts are not seen a willfully addicted hopefully science will find a better than the 12 step program treatment for the disease of alcoholism.
If some one was genetically predispositioned to having cancer and they ended up getting cancer would not that still be a disease? and those who are predispositioned to having cancer but do not end up getting cancer.. they did not make a choice to "not get cancer".
alcoholism is no different than cancer in the afflicted do not have a choice whether or not they will get the disease.
But I have no problem sitting in both camps. I can also easily sit in the AA/12-step and some medical camps which call Alcoholism a disease. As with the "choice" model, it can be useful to think of alcoholism as a brain or gene disorder.
For me, it really doesn't matter how you view it... the question is: Do you still want to do the bad behaviors that are associated with drinking and how can you use your view/theory to let go of the drinking?
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
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M$
Alcohol causes the diseases; alcoholism is the recognized disease for those suffering from alcohol related diseases. An alcoholic as has been stated by others in their answers to this question no longer has the “choice” of using and abusing alcohol, the brain and the body have become dependent on its “fix” of alcohol, physically, mentally and emotionally. Physically, mentally and emotionally alcoholics suffer from alcoholism. It is a disease that crosses over and affects the whole of the person, rendering them incapable of making normal and rational decisions when it comes to alcohol use, and many other functions of being a normal healthy human being.
Yes it is a disease, but unlike Cancer or Diabetes which describes specific disease elements of the human body, alcoholism is a disease that describes the damages and diseases caused by alcohol and is specific to the inability, due to the damage caused to control it without intervention.
Family and friends who are alcoholics and recovering alcoholics.
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M$
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M$
Thanks for sharing. I have heard of such things, but you paint the picture very well.
I say an alcoholic will not be able to get drunk meaning.. even if they have had 14, 21, 35 or more drinks and there is still alcohol in the room or the opportunity to have more alcohol at all the alcoholic will keep drinking until something make them stop. The alcoholic will not see themselves at the time as being drunk although everyone around them, assuming there is anyone, will clearly see that they are.
Great comparison to cocaine .. the same thing applies here nobody addicted to it buys a 8 ball of coke, does a some and then saves the rest for tomorrow. They do it all until it is gone and they for some reason cannot get any more.
I think I don't understand some points you make, such as alcoholics being unable to get drunk, but I agree with you that it's no less a disease than any other drug addiction rooted in a genetic tendency to addiction. Imho the only difference between "Alcoholism" and "Cocaineism" is that we understand the genetic underpinnings of the former more than the latter, and as such have given it a distinct name.
> will not see themselves at the time as being drunk
I think that is often true for other people too.
And not only at the level of being drunk. Generally people suck at telling how little or how much their judgment or performance has been impaired by drinking. For example most people will think they can drive better than they actually can after they've been drinking.