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Alcoholism: Disease or Behavior

Is Alcoholism a disease or a behavior?


  • Total voters
    39
Sure thing. I can't wait to hear your professional medical opinion, doctor.

So, in lieu of adhering my own opinion, I can just accept yours, doctor?
 
If my younger brother is genetically predisposed to becoming an alcoholic - what happened to my sister and I? Why can we drink in moderation and he cannot? All three of us started underage drinking, difference is, her and I did it socially and minimally. My brother chose to drink his 'problems' away. I have a very hard time understanding it to be a disease that is somehow out of someone's control, when there are others who may come from the same genetic makeup and never have a problem with it.

Well, it's not solely based on genetics.

A person can never smoke a cigarette in their life but if they have a predisposition in their family for cancer, they are predisposed to getting it. This predisposition is biological in nature.

But if a person never has a case of cancer in their immediate family but smokes a carton of cigarettes a week, then they are predisposed to getting it. This predisposition is behavioral in nature.

Again, that's why I hate the false dichotomy that this polls makes people assume. Alcoholism isn't an either/or thing. For some people it can be biological, but for other people it can be behavioral.

So your brother "drinking his problems away" may, indeed be behavioral. But that doesn't mean that other people's alcoholism isn't biological in nature.
 
I disagree. Mental disorders are different from physical disorders. Physical disorders can be treated physically. Disorders like this include asthma, cancer, chemically induced depression, and other things for which physical evidence and treatment may exist. Mental disorders/diseases are all part of the patient's psyche and are psychologically driven/caused. Alcoholism is typically an addiction to alcohol. It isn't a physical disease. It is a behavior for an individual to pick up a bottle of alcohol and ingest it. It would be a disease if the body somehow manufactured excess ethanol. I've had several family members die alcoholics. I've had some recover from alcohol. The patient may be addicted to alcohol, but nothing is forcing them to drink and they do not have a physical disease. I do believe mental disorders and physical disorders are very different.

Here's what you don't understand, though - one thing can be caused by both physical factors and psychological factors.

Take, for example, bad moods. Most people may think that a person is in a bad mood because he has some kind of behavioral problem,. such as he expects too much from other people and when he doesn't get what he feels entitled to he gets irked by it and lashes out at people.

But a bad mood can also be caused by physical symptoms as well. As any woman who is suffering from cramps can tell you. Their bad mood is caused by the physical pain and the bad mood isn't their normal behavior but rather is their way of dealing with that pain.

So we have one issue but it has two different causes.
 
So those of us who follow baseball have seen Detroit Tiger's First Basemen Miguel Cabrera's latest drinking **** up. Whenever the subject is brought up in the media, they always refer to it as a disease. I don't buy into the disease theory, in my opinion it's a behavior because you can stop being an alcoholic without medication by just simply putting down the bottle. I believe the disease theory is just to rationalize and cover the social stigma that is associated with being addicted to the sauce.

I take the South Park explanation for this. Alcoholism is not a disease, it's a behavior of abuse. To not be an alcoholic, you simply need to not drink as much. Some people have a large problem with this due to the addiction of alcohol both chemically and psychologically, and/or an inability to self control.

When people call it a disease, I always think of Randy Marsh in his wheelchair.
 
To not be an alcoholic, you simply need to not drink as much. Some people have a large problem with this due to the addiction of alcohol both chemically and psychologically, and/or an inability to self control.

No matter how severe your drinking problem is, if you can just choose not to drink as much, you are not an alcoholic. Two separate concepts.
 
So, in lieu of adhering my own opinion, I can just accept yours, doctor?

You don't need to accept mine, especially since I didn't give one. But I did provide you with a real doctor's opinion, Dr. Appleton's, which you have no evidence or credentials to refute.
 
It's behaviour and disease. The behaviour is acquired and then it's a disease because it results in dysfunction and mental imbalance.
 
I believe it is learned behavior. Now, bad habits are hard to break, and even this addiction can become slightly physical due to the release of endorphins and other brain stimuli. However, I find it hard to compare alcoholism to any real addictive drug such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, or even smoking. I have met many who drank too much too often who turned their lives around because something in their life changed. I think you'd find that most alcoholics have an underlying issue that is causing them to drink.

But I am not a psychiatrist, that's for sure.
 
I disagree. Mental disorders are different from physical disorders. Physical disorders can be treated physically. Disorders like this include asthma, cancer, chemically induced depression, and other things for which physical evidence and treatment may exist. Mental disorders/diseases are all part of the patient's psyche and are psychologically driven/caused. Alcoholism is typically an addiction to alcohol. It isn't a physical disease. It is a behavior for an individual to pick up a bottle of alcohol and ingest it. It would be a disease if the body somehow manufactured excess ethanol. I've had several family members die alcoholics. I've had some recover from alcohol. The patient may be addicted to alcohol, but nothing is forcing them to drink and they do not have a physical disease. I do believe mental disorders and physical disorders are very different.

You have just identified the stigma that those with mental disorders suffer. There is nothing different between mental and physical disorders... both have the same kinds of impacts, both cause visible symptoms, both impact functioning, both may be caused by problems inside the body, whether it be chemical, physical, or mental.

Further, no one "recovers" from alcoholism. They are in a state of recovery... when they are not using. It's not an issue that goes away, if one is an alcoholic. It's not about the behavior. It's about the state of being. No one forces someone to drink, but even if they are not drinking, that doesn't mean they are NOT an alcoholic.
 
I remember my grandfather talking about his struggle with alcohol once. We were down in Alabama visiting and another relative was over talking to my dad. Somehow the relative started talking about beer and then quickly apologized to my grandfather for mentioning it. My grandfather said it was OK. He said something like, "I could watch you sitting right there drink a beer and I wouldn't want one, but if I picked up a can and started drinking it, I wouldn't stop until they were all gone."

This is an excellent description of alcoholism. The choice lies in picking up the first drink. After that, the addictive process takes over.
 
Drugs may help curb addictive behavior. However many individuals instead get addicted to those drugs. I specifically stated that depression caused by chemical imbalances in the brain is a physical disease. However, alcoholism is still a behavior is still a behavior. Nothing is forcing their brain to drink or the individual to chose that. They may have an addictive personality, but addiction can be overcome. Nothing in an alcoholics brain chemistry forces them to drink. They may be predisposed to addictions, but nothing is forcing them to be addicted or partake in addictive behavior.

You don't understand the addictive process and the compulsion to act on the desire. There is genetic coding that indicates that one DOES have a predisposition to become addicted. Once one begins to drink, this DOES force them to be addicted. Further, beyond the genetic coding, the excitement of opioid receptors in the brain certainly forces those who are predisposed to continue to use. It is certainly brain chemistry that forces one to continue to partake in addictive behavior.

Now, do people who do NOT have the genetic coding that makes them predisposed to addiction, can they become addicted? Yes. It is less likely, but, they can. As their usage increases, this will also trigger brain chemical reactions, especially in the opioid receptors that will create addictive reactions.
 
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You don't need to accept mine, especially since I didn't give one. But I did provide you with a real doctor's opinion, Dr. Appleton's, which you have no evidence or credentials to refute.

Just so you know, as far as I could tell, Dr. Appleton is a doctor of Sociology.
 
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