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No way with the eye rolling. People who have that attitude have never known an alcoholic. It might be more of a genetic predisposition than a disease, but from the first drink, these people are lost. I come from a family full of them, including both grandmothers, one grandfather, and my father, and if I tell you the depths of it - I can only describe it that no one who could help themselves would live like alcoholics do. If you don't know what I mean, consider yourself lucky, but spare the rest of us the superior attitude.
You got it. My ex-husband is an alcoholic. We divorced when our daughter was ten. She knew all about alcoholism, was in the DARE program in school, dated the son of a preacher man all through high school, and they were very anti-drug, anti-drinking. She was terrified to drink any alcohol, afraid she would be an alcoholic like her dad and his brothers and their father.
Meanwhile, I can easily have a glass or two of wine or a pint of beer.
She never tasted a drink until she was in her last year of college, then she did. And she could not stop. She was almost dead by 24 of alcoholic poisoning. Fortunately, her roommate came home and found her vomiting blood and took her to the hospital.
She is sober and healthy now. But I almost lost her to this family predisposition or disease or whatever. I don't really care what you want to call it or not call it. It exists.
One of her AA friends mentioned to me one of the things they say at meetings. An alcoholic is looking at two doors. Behind one is freedom and life. Behind the other is addiction and death. An alcoholic has to think every day about which door they are going to choose. The rest of us don't think that way.
I personally think it is better classified as a mental illness.
Go to an open AA meeting some time and listen to what these people say, and you will quickly realize their minds operate on a different wave length than ours do. I remember the phrase, "Above all, the addiction must be protected", and you have to understand that this is what drives their every move.
I went with a recovering friend (now dead from cirrhosis at the age of 51) to a couple of her meetings. They were held in a church in a very well-to-do town. Rich alcoholics are no different from poor alcoholics except that they can afford the alcohol.
This guy got up and told how he had a family vacation planned with his family in their house on Cape Cod, about four hours away. His main thoughts about that upcoming vacation were wondering how he was going to be able to have enough in the house to drink without his wife and kids seeing him run to the liquor store all the time, so he took a day off work the week before the vacation without telling his family, bought enough liquor to get him through a week, then drove the four hours to the vacation house and hid it in the ceiling so it would be there for him when vacation time came. Then drove the four hours home and showed up for dinner as if it had been a normal workday.
IMO it doesn't matter whether it's considered a disease or not. The key point is that many people drink alcohol with minimal side effects and others become addicted and it destroys their life, just like drugs can do.
I seem to be able to stop after 1-2 drinks but other people in my family and friends circle are not able to do that and drink until it's a problem, I think it's something in the brain chemistry that determines this predilection just as there is a predilection for some people to be gay and others not.
Surely there must be people out there who are alcoholics but keep drinking and are able to keep it together?
I see so many moms and women (and yes plenty of men too) who are obsessed with wine. Do you really think none of them are alcoholics? I think it's possible to be an alcoholic and have some self control and know your limits so that it doesnt become a problem.
The woman across the st from me is constantly drinking wine, talking about wine...if she's an alcoholic it's not stopping her.
Bad habits aren't disease. Bouncing checks is a bad habit. So is charging more than you can pay off. Not a disease either, though you'll find it in the ever-growing DSM somewhere.
Unfortunately the word disease has come to mean any behavior or group of thoughts and behaviors that so-called medical professionals think they can treat, whether they can treat it successfully or not. They always have a fallback when they fail: its the disease's fault.
I agree "not my fault, I didn't do it, I can't help it" has become a way of life for many in our society. Regarding alcoholism my experience toward the end of my drinking with family, friends, employer... it didn't matter to them why I drank. Either I stopped or they were gone. The disease concept probably helps getting insurance to cover the cost of a rehab center and it gives the active alcoholic one more excuse to use.
Now, I love my sister and she's always welcome to visit but when she starts drinking she gets loud and argumentative. Is she an alcoholic? I don't know. That's her call. However, if she's going to drink throughout the evening don't come over.
If anything I subscribe to the theory some people may have a genetic predisposition towards alcoholism but this doesn't excuse a persons behavior. Once I reached 30 I realized most people were no longer buying my act. They were too busy with life. (My sister is 65.)
One point of view regarding AA and the disease concept:
What AA did contribute inadvertently to the disease concept – its goal was not to understand alcoholism but to help alcoholics – was its members’ collective experience....
AA was not the source or promoter of the disease concept that emerged in the 1940s as a public policy slogan and an organizing construct for alcoholism treatment. AA’s peripheral use of such medical metaphors was not a declaration of science but a simple statement of collective experience. https://12stepphilosophy.org/2018/10...ex-connection/
Only if you do not understand what is being said in that.
I see AA is now also using the term Brain Illness. With some cases, this is even clearly driven by a genetic linked brain formation issue around the Amygdala. Center of emotional regulation.
As was noted in prior posts -- many alcoholics "self-medicate" for the way Ethanol makes them "feel." It is an attempt at emotional regulation. However this choice of Medication is so severe, it has many other unintended consequences.
I think there is a physical reason why some people become addicted to alcohol and some don’t. They say it is in the brain chemistry.
We have alcoholics in the family and those who have stopped drinking seem to have needed to substitute it with other addictive behaviors. Either they have a hard time with getting off prescription drugs, or they chew tobacco, or even crave too much sugar.
Surely there must be people out there who are alcoholics but keep drinking and are able to keep it together?
I mentioned in my sister in a previous post. She's never lost a job or had any trouble that I know of regarding her drinking. It can be a fine line between someone who might drink too often/too much and the alcoholic. Only the individual can make that call. My sister has no plans to stop drinking and that's o.k. Her business. As long as she's not driving while under the influence its all good... I guess.
Alcohol is the only product that has been the subject of two, never mind one, Constitutional Amendments. It's in the psyche.
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