Is alcoholism really a legitimate disease, or is it a choice?

My name is @buddawiggi an I am an alcoholic. 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.

There's no doubt that the way the brain responds to alcohol has an important genetic component. 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: youtube.com/watch?v=X1oUteLOPOw.

Alcoholism is a disease that affects millions of people. Alcohol is a substance that changes how the dopamine seretonin are distributed in the brain. When enough alcohol is consumed over a long enough period, the ability to feel pleasure or pain is severely dulled because the receptors for the dopamine and seretonin or "pleasure" receptors are damaged.

Alcoholics must drink more and more to get the same pleasure as someone who is not an alcoholic. Eventually the alcohol affects other organs in the body such as the brain and the liver. 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.

I did a research paper in college about "Alcoholism" and what I found out was "yes" indeed alcoholism is a disease. Regardlees if it is through someone's genes or through their lifestyle it is still classified as a disease and it is also inherited. However, a family with five children one or two children may be effected by it.

Depending on what gene's the child inherited. Many alcoholic's pay little if any attention to the results that could occur being an alcoholic. Driving under the influence, their marriage or any legal actions from their abuse.

Even though alcoholism is not curable, it is treatable. Through a 12 step program or other available classes. 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!

flickr.com/photos/theonashow3/2534427757.

I read an article at Baldwin Research Institute and after a thorough review of the available studies and research done on both side of the debate ( whether alcoholism is a disease or choice). They have concluded that the belief the alcoholism is a disease creates the existence of the disease. 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.

In my education and experience, it all depends on what theory you work from. I don't think I've heard of it as a "choice". I can see it as "functional" though... Alcohol can function to protect the self.

Unfortunately, this might be a very poor way to protect the self and there might be better ways (hence, the work I do as a therapist). 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?

In a way you have answered it also. €œAlcoholismâ€? Is a recognized disease, though of course there are the distracters from this as well, the question is not is it a disease but what kind of disease is it.Is it a mental or physical disease?

It is well known that alcohol kills brain cells, and thereby damages the brain. So alcohol contributes to brain damage, a disease in its own right. Alcohol is a chemical element that affects the body organs, the brain and in this way contributes to the potential for many diseases.

Alcohol is not a disease, but alcohol causes diseases. Alcoholism is a diseased state in which the person has damaged the body and brain to such an extent that they are now suffering from at least one alcohol related disease if not multiple ones. 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.

To me It's a choice. I don't drink alcohol because I am allergic to it.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.