Alcoholism: disease or choice?

Specialties Addictions

Published

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

I agrre with " Blue Ridge" alchol is a choice that leads to a disease, such as eating bad foods leads to obesity and diabetes.

As the chilcd of an alcoholic I know that I ammore at risk than others of becoming an alcoholic so it is my choice to rarely drink.

An alcoholic has onlythemselves to blame. The chose to take the first drink. The same for drup users. Poverty, abuse, life, did not make you use, you chose to use.

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I can't tipe today, sorry for the misspellings.

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ProwlingMA,

As a social worker I sincerely hope you don't work anywhere in the South. Do you think children start drinking at a such a young age do it as a responsible thought? I have worked with 10 year olds who were drinking and taking drugs. I have worked cases of younger girls who were having sex. I have no doubt this was not their choice. They were too young and their brains were not developed enough to make their own decisions. They were taken advantage of by adults who knew better but, insisted on pushing their own will upon them.

You should take a good look at yourself. He without sin should cast the first stone and from reading you post I doubt you are without sin.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
Do you walk with your right foot or your left foot?

Alcoholism--the trait that predisposes a person to have an unhealthy craving for alcohol--is, for the purposes of this discussion, a disease. I much prefer the term "condition" because it is less emotionally charged.

People don't get a choice about whether or not they experience this compulsion, therefore, that aspect of this situation should never be used as evidence of moral failing.

Those who live with this condition (about which they have no choice), DO, however, have decisions to make about how they will manage their lives.

If you look at the condition of alcoholism like magnetic attraction, you can see that there is a force at work that no amount of willpower can countermand. You can will iron filings to stay on the table when a magnet passes by, but magnetic force will overrule you every time.

Unless.

There are measures that can weaken, block, or outperform the magnetic attraction. That force still exists (as does alcoholism), but distance, insulation, and stronger magnetism can change the outcome.

For an alcoholic, these measures can include avoiding drink and all its trappings, taking meds which make alcohol consumption unpleasant or at least non-productive, stripping away years of rationalization and truly counting the cost of their drinking, enlisting the help of trusted partners to keep them honest, and many other means to stay sober.

Alcoholics who hope to wake one day with no desire to drink usually fall off the wagon. Some get run over by it. A handful of folks do, by the grace of God, find themselves liberated from the craving, but most do not. The real point of grace for them is to accept both the condition and the choices that they will live with every single day on this earth.

Alcoholism--the compulsion--is a condition. No choice involved.

Alcoholic behavior--to drink or not to drink, to seek help or not to seek help, to lie to yourself or let the truth in--is choice in its purest form.

Right foot, left foot.

Recognizing one without including the other will only leave you hopping in circles.

As always............VERY well said!!:yeah:

And very true.

Sixteen and three-quarters years after I took my last drink, I STILL crave alcohol. Not every day, of course, but during times of unusual stress or upheaval, the cravings come back just as strong as they were when I was still a practicing alcoholic. I've accepted the fact that they probably will never disappear entirely.........but I also accept the fact that I can never, EVER give in to them.:no:

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I agrre with " Blue Ridge" alchol is a choice that leads to a disease, such as eating bad foods leads to obesity and diabetes.

As the chilcd of an alcoholic I know that I ammore at risk than others of becoming an alcoholic so it is my choice to rarely drink.

An alcoholic has onlythemselves to blame. The chose to take the first drink. The same for drup users. Poverty, abuse, life, did not make you use, you chose to use.

What about the mentally ill? I am not sure you can lump mental illness in with poverty, abuse or life...

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.

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Specializes in Med-Tele, Internal Med PCU.
ProwlingMA,

As a social worker I sincerely hope you don't work anywhere in the South. Do you think children start drinking at a such a young age do it as a responsible thought? I have worked with 10 year olds who were drinking and taking drugs. I have worked cases of younger girls who were having sex. I have no doubt this was not their choice. They were too young and their brains were not developed enough to make their own decisions. They were taken advantage of by adults who knew better but, insisted on pushing their own will upon them.

You should take a good look at yourself. He without sin should cast the first stone and from reading you post I doubt you are without sin.

As a responsible thought you ask, probably not.

As a conscious decision? Definitely yes. I started abusing alcohol at age 12, we lined up our buyer (only stole from parents twice) who would buy us a 12 pack and or bottle in exchange for his own 6 pack. It was my decision, just as it was the decision of my friends. But when I turned 21 I discovered that it was more about the challenge, getting and having the booze, getting drunk and not getting caught (or trying not to). Once the challenges were gone so was much of the allure. I did continue abusing "because that's what sailors do" for another couple years but that was more to do with under-established coping mechanisms.

To weigh in on the OP's question, they go together it's a choice until dependancy/addiction kicks in. Once the body needs alcohol to return to its normal condition it is a disease.

As I recall there are differing opinions of what defines an alcoholic, 1. Whether one can say "I'm having 1 drink ..." if they don't stop at one, two, three as they determined, they are an alcoholic. No matter whether circumstances changed (SO came to bar, plans changed, etc).

2. Is more mainstream, that relates to physical dependancy.

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It is a disease but I am not willing to state or assert that it is 100% preventable. Many behavioral disorders follow the disease model in their expression.

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Kevin RN08

WHAT? Do you think at 12 years old you should be held responsible for your actions? If so why have parents who should teach their children right from wrong? At 18 years old the brain is just catching up to the body. A conscious decision? If you mean you were not unconscious then maybe. We wouldn't allow a 12 year old to make decisions for us financially or medically so we would it be alright for them to decide personally what is right?

I hate what you must have endure but, I don't think a 12 year old should make decisions. That is why the court system refers to them as juveniles.

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Kevin RN08

WHAT? Do you think at 12 years old you should be held responsible for your actions? If so why have parents who should teach their children right from wrong? At 18 years old the brain is just catching up to the body. A conscious decision? If you mean you were not unconscious then maybe. We wouldn't allow a 12 year old to make decisions for us financially or medically so we would it be alright for them to decide personally what is right?

I hate what you must have endure but, I don't think a 12 year old should make decisions. That is why the court system refers to them as juveniles.

You really believe that 10-13 year olds don't know EXACTLY what they are doing?

You want to know what I did at 13? I WAS drinking and doing all sorts of illegal things AND outsmarting 'adults.'

I knew exactly what I was doing. The only difference between a child and adult is the kid doesn't know what COULD result in 20 years.

BTW - The 'courts' regularly try children as young as ten in some places as adults...

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Specializes in Neuro.

I think alcoholism is many things. I have many alcoholics in my family, but my mom is the current active alcoholic. While the initial drink was certainly a choice of some sort, alcohol is so embedded into my mom's life that she can't even tell what damage it has caused. My mother has chosen to buy bottles of wine instead of food, for weeks at a time. She needs a drink to be comfortable in social settings. She needs a drink to fly on an airplane. She needs a drink to "tell me how she really feels."

My mother cannot function without alcohol because she doesn't know how to. It is her friend, her crutch. Alcohol participated in my parents' divorce (partly because my dad quit drinking and she didn't), and permanently damaged my relationship with her due to her inappropriate outbursts.

People have talked about the rock bottom thing -- "Oh, when things get real bad, then they'll see, and then they'll quit." I'm waiting for rock bottom. I thought it would happen when she got evicted from her condo and declared bankruptcy, but then she just stayed with friends and drank their booze. Her friends pity her and feed her, so she still has the money to buy alcohol. She tried to work an 8 hour job but the withdrawal was too painful for her to go that long without drinking.

I don't know what's going to happen to her, but my mom is a very smart woman, and I doubt she chooses to live this way.

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Specializes in Skilled nursing@ LTC.

Disease. Sit through a few AA meetings and tell me that anyone would choose that way of life. Congrats to all who have managed to stay sober, one day at a time. I don't know if I would have the strength.

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Specializes in Med-Tele, Internal Med PCU.
Kevin RN08

WHAT? Do you think at 12 years old you should be held responsible for your actions? Yes, it was me trying to be cool, show that I was grown, making my own choices, not getting caught. You'll really flip when I tell you that I drove drunk (legally) at least twice a week from the time I was 16 until I was 18, and before that it was a buddy that drove since he was 3 years older.

If so why have parents who should teach their children right from wrong? If you don't think my (single) mother held me accountable, you are crazy. I got caught once by the police, she refused to come get me, when they took me home, she got into the cop car (back seat) and said if they were going to leave me there she was going to save them the trip to come get her... I stayed at Grandma's that night.

At 18 years old the brain is just catching up to the body. At 18 and 3 months I was on my first "Med Cruise", ended up sitting off the coast of Lebonan. Please don't lecture me with that argument.

A conscious decision? If you mean you were not unconscious then maybe. We wouldn't allow a 12 year old to make decisions for us financially or medically so we would it be alright for them to decide personally what is right? Are you with your kids 24 hours a day? Do your kids do anything on their own? Where I am from, how I was raised, and what I believe is to make your choices, some will be good while others will not. But do not blame others for your poor decisions.

I hate what you must have endure but, I don't think a 12 year old should make decisions. That is why the court system refers to them as juveniles.

My answers are bolded above, you don't have to like it and please don't feel sorry for me. I am a nursing student now, but I'm 42 and retired, not rich but retired. Why was I successful? Because I held myself accountable, and expected the same from those around me. My guys could screw up and they knew it, which allowed them (us) to acheive many great things because they were able to take risks, all they had to do was own the mistake like they owned the success.

All of that said, you must know, I grew up in a small town in farming country in the late 70s to mid 80s.

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