Originally posted by: brigden
There isn't a moron in this thread in a position to equivically state whether alcoholism is a true disease or simply a self-induced condition.
my thoughts exactly.
as a psychology major, i find myself knowing significantly more about a variety of related subjects than others on this board, but the knowledge is merely enough to allow me to know that i know nothing.
even in the elite academic and professional psychology world, there is rampant debate about this and no agreement.
IMO, Amused is correct about the choice. however, this argument is like saying "i have the choice to stab myself with a steak knife everytime i see one." yeah, you do have that choice, but it would be a tough one to make, wouldn't it? and the choice to stop drinking (or stop shooting up, etc) is about on that level in terms of the possibility for physical and psychological discomfort. furthermore, the
propensity for alcoholism (and other addictions) is hereditary. you don't make the choice to be more easily addicted than the next guy.
but you aren't born an alcoholic, you become one through a series of choices to drink, whether to feel good, self-medicate, or escape a stressor. alcoholism runs strongly in my family, but everyone in my particular line of family has ultimately resisted it. there are cousins who haven't. so by making the right choices, you can avoid problems. THAT SAID, everyone in my line of family has had a pretty soft life. no one has been on the street and everyone was raised by parents who cared about them and had the finances to support them. so maybe we made the right choices, or maybe those choices were made for us by our upbringing and social networks.
i should point out that Amused's pointing to himself as "proof" that you can make a choice not to drink and have it work is irrelevant. the Fundamental Attribution Error (capital letters for a reason) in psychology is that we attribute good things to our own abilities and bad things that happen to other people to their lack of ability. in reality, the world is not so nearly within our control. Amused's success is far more likely to be due to a low propensity to addiciton in the first place, his body handling the withdrawl process well, or his addictions not being super-deep to start with, than due to his mental prowess or ability to stick to his guns. I'm talking likelihoods, or course, not absolutes. and alcoholism may not be a "chemical imbalance" but propensity to it is related to the brain's inate reactions to chemicals AND it is often the result of self-medication for other existing chemical imbalances. furthermore, withdrawl is the result of a chemical imbalance (no more booze to balance things!). Amused is right that alcohol is a drug and alcoholism is a drug addiction, of course.
clearly, alcoholism is not a "disease" in the sense we normally use the word, but neither are many other things we call disease. kidney disease is not a disease, but rather a failure. there are very specific brain changes that occur during an addiction, but it is caused by chemicals, not little bugs. on the mental side of things, the APA does not classify addiciton as a mental disorder.
there are argurments on both sides for the usefulness of
calling it a disease. on the one hand, it allows alcoholics to retain some self-esteem, which may make it easier to quit drinking. understanding "i have something physically in me that makes it dangerous for me to drink" is an important concept. yet taking the accountability and responsibility out of the situation may also make it easier for a person fall back to old ways without guilt. AA uses this accountability method to help people stop drinking... but i am not aware of any long-term research that prove's AA's effectiveness or superiority over other methods at preventing relapses, and i have vague memories of research that showed AA to not be any better.
so it's 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.
and the point is, i've read most of this long thread, and those of you who are arguing most passionately have no idea what the fvck you are talking about (isn't that usually the way it works out?).