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.

Specializes in ER,ICU,L+D,OR.

Disease and a Choice, You make the choice to start drinking for whatever reason.

0 Votes
good point....the damage done by the poisoning effects of alcohol is very real and fatal. but, as you point out, it's because of a behavior that can be changed. in the same vein, most lung and throat cancers are a disease that is brought on by the behavior of smoking...:smokin:
i completely agree. i guess what i am trying to inject is there are some folks that just can't pull it off - attempt after attempt, even when told they will die.

do you think there may be some people too far gone to change? no right answer here, just our opinion.

0 Votes

i'll agree that addiction is a disease, but a mental disease.

whatever vices we choose (etoh, drugs, food, gambling, shopping, etc), it rewards us with a perceived psychological benefit.

the adrenaline rush is what keeps one addicted, no matter how temporary that rush is.

no one or nothing has convinced me to date, that addiction is a medical disease.

but nonetheless, it is a mental disease and warrants just as much intervention.

leslie

0 Votes
Specializes in neurology.
Do you think there may be some people too far gone to change? No right answer here, just our opinion.

I've heard amazing stories about people hitting rock bottom and then quitting drinking forever. Sometimes the worse off you were, the easier it is to remember that you simply MUST NOT pick up a drink again.

It's a bit tougher for me b/c I quit drinking when I was only 21 - I decided early on, before I lost anything or lost my health, that alcohol was poison for me. The alcoholic in me could try and rationalize that I was just a kid and if I wanted an occasional drink now it would be okay - but the recovery and AA that's been drummed into my head reminds me that if i ever pick up even one drink, it's over. So I choose, every day, to not drink.

To the OP - there is a 'nurses in recovery' forum on here too that you might want to check out.

0 Votes
Specializes in ER,ICU,L+D,OR.

If I want an adrenaline rush I go work ER, or I go skydiving. Or Bungee cord jumping. Or ride my Ninja

0 Votes

Disease.

Very much like high cholesterol as many people pick up a drink and drink safely. Others cannot. People pick up bacon, red meat, etc. and get high cholesterol, some do not. Eating poorly will make it worse but it exists even without the food. Alcoholism exists without drinking.

Alcoholics started out drinking like others, for the social interaction, the buzz, the down time. Genetics intervened and the pathways of the brain were different. Alcoholism then exists. Did the pathways exist before the first drink? Perhaps. There are many grandchildren of alcoholics who become alcoholic even if their parents did not drink.

Even when the alcoholic stops drinking the disease does not go away, similar to the hypercholesteremia that is unresolved.

As others have said, every alcoholic is just one drink away from being a drunk. Fortunately the treatment for alcoholism can be less expensive than Lipitor, Zetia and other such meds for high cholesterol. The treatment with the best outcomes has been AA since the 1930s.

There are many research areas involved in learning about alcoholism. It can be a very sad disease as people tend to die horrible deaths related to this disease. In a similar way to this, heart and brain attacks are often the result of the cholesterol problem. They can die tragic deaths but there is no stigma attached to those diseases.

I would love to see this stigma end.:up:

0 Votes
Specializes in cardiac, ortho, med surg, oncology.

And here's a question for you - why would anyone CHOOSE to be an alcoholic, when they could have chosen to be a normal drinker? I can't imagine anyone would voluntarily do that to themselves./quote]

I don't think anybody chooses to be an alcoholic in the sense that you are asking just as I don't think anybody chooses to become overweight, chronic smoker etc. Disease implies a condition that one cannot simply choose to stop with choice or willpower i.e one cannot simply wake up and say I choose not to have cancer, pneumonia, etc today.

Congrats on your sobriety!

BTW...asking out of curiosity not addiction.

0 Votes
Specializes in Psych, ER, OB, M/S, teaching, FNP.

This is a tough one. I'm a psych nurse and supposed to be all "Its not your fault honey you can't control xxxxx " but I have trouble with the disease title. People can not quit HTN, they can not quit schizophrenia, they can not quit RA, people quit using drugs, alcohol and cigarettes all the time.

Now it is obviously easier to quit for some than others, but no one EVER quits schizophrenia. And as far as people saying that someone is always an alcoholic even if they quit drinking, I have seen many, many people that were alcoholics stop drinking for several years, change lifestyles, partners, jobs etc. and be able to go back to drinking and not have it cause the same dysfunction.

So maybe the definition of alcoholism is in need of change, it is just the physical addiction? Only about 30 % +/- of people go through DTs. I thnk one is an alcoholic if alcohol cause dysfunction one one's life.

I think that what comes with calling a condition a "disease" comes the "It's not your fault" and the non-ownership of behaviors and the belief that one can not change on his/her own.

I know it is something very powerful, but I am not convinced that it is a disease..............

0 Votes
Specializes in IM/Critical Care/Cardiology.

I guess I believe it's both. First a choice and to follow into a possible disease state. I agree with Earle58 about the mental issues involved with addiction. Yep jut like anything that feels good to begin with, can get out of control.

I also look at my family history on both sides and it's a long list baby. I grew up in an alcoholic home and became involved in al-anon groups at a young age. I knew I never wanted to be my mother. Sad to say, but true.

0 Votes

both...a phyical predispostion, =disease......and choice because you chose to try to do it any way

0 Votes
both...a phyical predispostion, =disease......and choice because you chose to try to do it any way

only some are physically predisposed...

typically those who are born to parents that are alcoholics.

the common link amongst all users/addicts, is they experience a perceived benefit...

which leads to heavier use and dependence, then addiction.

another poster mentioned that by calling it a disease, it elicits a helpless/powerless response and any accountability is thrown out the door.

i agree with that.

and i could never compare the disease of addiction to the disease of cancer or cystic fibrosis.

sooooo not apples and apples.

leslie

0 Votes

Alcoholism runs on both sides of my family. What I have noticed is those that do develop alcoholism in the family are those with poor coping skills. They *choose* to use alcohol as a way to cope and then end up becoming addicted. While I do believe that one shot of heroin will make you a heroin addict I do not believe that one sip of alcohol with make you an alcoholic. However, I do believe that through long term use (abuse) of alcohol you can become an alcoholic and have an extremely difficult time both physically and mentally with giving it up.

Edited to add: Whether or not these poor coping skills are genetic and lead to alcoholism is debatable. I don't really have an opinion one way or the other on that.

0 Votes
+ Add a Comment