AA Is Not The Only Way

Why isn’t smoking cigarettes a disease also?
I don’t believe it’s a disease. It just givers people an excuse. I believe it’s a CHOICE
still no one answered why alcoholism is a disease and not cigarettes.

They start as a behavior issue, but once physical and mental dependence on the substances begins, then it crosses over into being a disease. You need to look into dopamine and what it does to your brain and body. Then go here, it spells it out quite simply:

http://www.macalester.edu/psychology/whathap/UBNRP/Dopamine/alcoholtobac.html

This is why addicts need mental health support, biochemical support as well as medical support (for the other diseases that both smoking and alcohol abuse eventually cause) when they are trying to quit coke, cigarettes, booze, crack, whatever.
I hope this explains the situation. In the beginning, it may be a choice, but once addiction sets in and their behavior is driven by that need for that feeling brought on by dopamine, then they are in trouble and it IS a disease. Please do not judge people based on their being addicted or not. I have seen wonderfully talented, educated, brilliant people brought down by this. No one would choose a life driven by drugs that may/ will eventually kill them.

The key to breaking an addiction is to break that dopamine reward loop. So, if you are old enough and smart enough to understand this, go here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=OUC4igr3O4sC&pg=PA390&lpg=PA390&dq=dopamine+loop+addicts&source=bl&ots=gxi7UBOomZ&sig=sCdTx5VEWe2ji8a0g7B0MRG1xDc&hl=en&ei=FLP1SZ2GKY-MtgfVnpifDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2

Try searching the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system as well.
Sorry, thumbsdowner, but this is NOT a moral issue, it is a medical and biochemical issue. People need support not judgement if they are ever going to break the cycle, and therefore the addiction. Take off the judge’s robes.

I Am sick of people saying Alcoholism is a disease, Cancer is a Disease, Alcoholism is a choice! I just want peoples thoughts on this subject.

It is not a disease. And I am sick and tired of people who want to drink themselves to death taking the better things from us sane people. Everything they need to get better takes from us. The government puts money towards their AAA meetings. And if their stupidity led to homelessness, they are taking money out of our taxes also to eat and have a place to stay in a shelter or maybe even more.

And medical, they somehow get on waiting lists for a liver that someone else needs more that did not hurt thier liver and now they must wait even longer. While the alcoholic has a new liver to destroy.

In my area alot of the alcoholics get more help than they deserve. It is just not fair. I do not pity them. If they want to drink themselves to death then let them. We do not need their drunken asses anyway.

I wish that more people agreed with me on this topic.

I am doing some research for my college class and I need opinions as to why you may think that alcoholism is a disease or why you may think that it is not! If anyone has any life experiences please feel free to elaborate and if you don’t feel comfortable doing so on here please feel free to email me I would love to have a real life story to go along with my research!

Easy
Acute intoxication is a disease in which the person goes through withdrawal this can go from a hangover to DT’s which can be fatal.

Additionally after the acute withdrawal, a person will often have a psychological addiction; they must undergo counseling for this. While alcoholic anonymous has been shown to have a negative success rate (i.e. people relapse more after joining alcoholics anonymous than just trying abstinence on your own) it has a powerful support group. This is because has been defined by the higher courts as a religion, and by many prominent authors as a religious cult. Like all cults, it preys on people during a tough time in their life.

I celebrated 2 years a week ago and I feel it was just temporary insanity. I simply changed friends and accept that I am happier and healthier sober.

http://www.mentalhealthchannel.net/alcohol/diagnosis.shtml

It appears in the DSM IV as a diagnoses of mental disorders. Individuals with parents/others in their family are more prone to abuse. Just as others with anxiety disorders, phobias, etc….It is difficult to disentangle what a person has learned in an environment vs. what is perhaps making them more genetically prone to something. An addictive personality may lean towards, drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc….and many times riding a person of one addiction, another addiction with surface (alcohol gone, bingo appears). What research has found is that alcoholism many times is a person’s way to "self-medicate" in treating other things, for e.g. anxiety or depression. Hence, it appears in the DSM IV. Congratulations on your 2 years! Be proud! (psychologist)

Questions we all should have about the disease concept and Alcoholism and how it it sold as fact when it is not fact.

No claim for the “disease” concept is based in science. Anyone selling the disease concept is deliberately selling a lie.

Research it and you will see I am right.
http://www.baldwinresearch.com/

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Or, could it be an amalgam of both?

What shall we declare as the criteria for something to qualify as a disease?

Wouldn’t you agree that we need to have standards that are generally acceptable in terms of what constitutes a disease, as opposed to a poor life choice?

I don’t think that you can classify anything that is intentional as a disease. I have always hated alcoholics claiming it as a disease. Try explaining to an 8 year Leukemia patient with an inoperable tumor that alcoholism is a disease. Users and addicts need to be accountable and stop acting like it is something that was done to them.

Please give me specifics (bioligical) on why you think it is a disease, and why people claim they have no power over it?
That would be *biological*, not that other word I mis-spelled up there.

The most convincing argument for alcoholism/addiction being a disease
comes from Terry Gorski:

"If alcoholism is defined as a disease, it will be treated as a healthcare problem. As a result, alcoholics will be assured the right to receive appropriate medical treatment for this disease. The treatment of Alcoholism will be covered by health insurance and other health care financing plans in both the public and private sectors. The appropriate health care groups will be mobilized to support its treatment. And, most importantly, ongoing biomedical research which relates alcoholism to other diseases will be funded.

If alcoholism is not defined as a disease, we will be making the decision that it does not rightfully belong within healthcare. Alcoholics, then, will be denied access to vital healthcare services. Insurance and other health care financing plans will exclude alcoholism.

Alcoholism, which is responsible for 30% of all inpatient hospital days and nearly 50% of emergency room visits, will be divorced from the medical field. As a result it will never be fully integrated into our health care system."

There it is, the ECONOMIC reason that they’re called "diseases".

Dr. George Scipione teaches on alcohol abuse as not a disease, but a sin that can be overcome through Jesus Christ.

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I think is is NOT an illness as many of you are brainwashed to believe but a lifestyle that can be altered.

It all depends on what you define an "illness" to be.

Tuberculosis is an illness, diabetes is an illness, and cancer is an illness. You would have it that the major difference between these conditions and alcoholism is that none of those conditions are caused by any conscious choice of the afflicted.

Gingivitis is an illness, but that is easily preventable by regular brushing and flossing.

Malaria is an illness, but that is easily preventable by pest control.

AIDS is an illness, but that is easily preventable by using a condom.

The flu is an illness, but that can be easily prevented by getting a flu shot.

YET…

Alcoholism is not an illness because the alcoholic has become such by behaving in the same way as millions of people are able to do every day without any serious consequence?

Does the future alcoholic have any forewarning that, while in his teens and early twenties, he or she will ultimately be unable to control the behavior that seemingly everyone else around him/her is safely engaging in?

In case you haven’t noticed, I happen to deal with alcoholism on a daily basis. Do you think I planned to become an alcoholic? Do you think I have a choice whether or not I have to deal with this horrible condition each and every day I wake up? Do you think that I would not give anything to be able to have a social drink like a normal person?

Yes, I have a choice whether to take that first drink or not. What I do not have a choice in is whether that one drink will send me back to that horrible place I try each and every day to avoid.

I don’t give a rat’s azz whether you think it is a disease or an addiction. Just don’t go around saying someone can choose to be or not be an alcoholic by the lifestyle choices they make. You will get more sympathy from telling a plane crash victim that they shouldn’t have made the choice to get on that plane.

I was ticketed for a DWI and lost my job and have been diagnosed with the disease of alcholism. Is it constitutionally ok to fire me if I have a disease?

It depends you your States labor laws. The ADA recognizes alcoholism as a disorder that falls within the ADA statutes. This may or may not affect you.

You would need to seek legal advice to get an accurate answer.