Alcoholism: disease or choice?

Specialties Addictions

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What is your opinion; is alcoholism a disease or a choice? Please provide your rationale or empirical support of your belief.

I don't know if it's a disease or a choice, but I tend to agree with those who see it as a blend of both, or at least a blend of compulsion/addiction and choice.

If it is a disease, it's a pretty strange disease. It makes everyone around the alcoholic sick, too. The alcoholic maybe the epicenter of the disease, but waves of sickness spread from that center. Ruined relationships. Ruined lives. Ruined health. Days, nights spent worrying about the alcoholic. Anxiety fueled by helplessness, fear and hatred all at once. Fearful, anxious kids. Kids who are unconfident and beat themselves up because they couldn't make Mom or Dad quit drinking. Kids who grow up to be alcoholics themselves and spread the disease to the next generation.

I hate alcohol. I hate everything about it. I hate the way people think you can't have a "good time" without alcohol. I hate the billboards advertising it, the sexy girls used to sell it. I hate the way it makes someone you love into someone you don't even know any more. I hate the way it twists someone's thinking so that they think it is OK to get behind the wheel of a car when they've been drinking.

Sorry for the rant. I come from a long line of alcoholics and I have seen its devastation first-hand my entire life. And in my line of work, I see the collateral damage alcohol does to other people. It's damn depressing.

Still don't understand why crack and marijuana are illegal but cigarettes and alcohol are perfectly ok.

Makes no sense.

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Still don't understand why crack and marijuana are illegal but cigarettes and alcohol are perfectly ok.

Makes no sense.

My family has had its share of crack addicts. Their behaviors were destructive, and they did illegal things in order to score their next hit. During my father's drugged-out days, he placed a gun to my mother's temple. He did more things while under the influence than I care to mention.

There are many cigarette smokers in my family, too. However, I seriously doubt that any of them would commit armed robberies or have sex in exchange for a carton of Marlboro Lights.

My family has had its share of crack addicts. Their behaviors were destructive, and they did illegal things in order to score their next hit. During my father's drugged-out days, he placed a gun to my mother's temple. He did more things while under the influence than I care to mention.

There are many cigarette smokers in my family, too. However, I seriously doubt that any of them would commit armed robberies or have sex in exchange for a carton of Marlboro Lights.

You are quite right butthey are all equally destructive and there were days in my youth where I stole to get money for cigarettes or stole cigarettes.

They also all kill, at varying speeds, and destroy lives and families to varying degrees.

Still makes no sense. Not that I want cigarettes to be illegal. I would have to become a criminal!!!

Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.
As the daughter of an alcoholic, I say alcoholism is a choice that results in disease.

I can feel the flames already.

I personally have never had a problem with alcohol and never will (just doesn't interest me much). My husband on the other hand is a very functional alcoholic (never misses work, never mean, etc... but drinks beer to excess every day of his life and couldn't possibly go without it). His grandfather, mother and brother were also alcoholics (although not always so functional).

I started teaching my young kids that they will probably be predisposed to the risk of alcoholism and as they grow up, they will have to make responsible choices related to alcohol. I also agree with another poster about alcohol often used as a coping mechanism and this leading to alcoholism.

I dislike the term functional addicts/alcoholics. There really is no such thing. There are addicts that 'maintain' but they always progress in the disease or at the very least show their true colors when stressed.

Then there are the non addicts. Many people think the physical addiction is the addiction but it isn't. Yes it is part of it but someone without the mental addiction is not truly addicted. They are the ones that stop cold turkey with no misteps along the way. They are the ones that say later that they have no cravings or desire to go back. They don't dream about the drug, taste it or smell it. They are not truly addicted. Which is a good thing.

There is a line, thin perhaps, between addict and habit. I had a habit of drinking to excess for many years but was never addicted which is why I could walk away on a whim. Smoking on the other hand is NOT a habit. I can't just walk away from that. I am addicted.

Still don't understand why crack and marijuana are illegal but cigarettes and alcohol are perfectly ok.

Makes no sense.

Because the social elite own the Booze (McCain) and Republicans in general profit from tobacco (check the voting from tobacco states).

Republicans are the new "Mob."

Well in that case that gives me 1 reason to like Republicans. I love my tobacco!

I'll let you hang there on that....been a smoker myself.

Specializes in ER,ICU,L+D,OR.
Well in that case that gives me 1 reason to like Republicans. I love my tobacco!

That sure leaves a big wide opening for me to comment on. However, Lets just leave it That I am a Democrat all the way.:heartbeat:redpinkhe:redbeathe

Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled thread........................

Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.
what about the mentally ill? many, if not most, people with mental illnesses end up self medicating. i'd think that in and of itself show a lack of choice.

i totally exclude those with mental illness from my view of alcoholism as a choice......those souls absolutley have a disease, and alcohol is just a sidebar problem!

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