bobmac
Major Champion
There seems to be a difference of opinion among the experts.
Disease or choice?
Disease or choice?
Is Alcoholism a disease?
- Thread starter bobmac
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chrisd
Major Champion
Certainly not a choice, but I'm not sure disease is the right word
Captainron
Big Hitting, South African Sweary Person
It’s not a disease in that you can’t “catch†it. Otherwise smoking, drug addition etc. would also be diseases. It’s an addictive personality thing in my opinion.
It starts as a choice, so is in no way a diseases imo.
Circumstances can then lead to it becoming a habit or addiction. But unless you're a heroine baby you aren't born with a taste for it. I sympathies with those that become enthralled in any addiction as they all ruin lives. But classing it as a disease is a discredit to true illnesses imo.
Circumstances can then lead to it becoming a habit or addiction. But unless you're a heroine baby you aren't born with a taste for it. I sympathies with those that become enthralled in any addiction as they all ruin lives. But classing it as a disease is a discredit to true illnesses imo.
Addiction. It doesn't involve a bacteria, virus or tumour.
I lost a good friend, in his mid 30's, to alcoholism. It was a painful experience watching his life fall apart before he died. Good job, family life and outside interests. But he was always the last one out of the pub after a football match or training, always wanting a swift one to finish off. Then it was 5 pints in the hour lunch break at work. At this point he pulled back from all his friends, probably fed up of being badgered to cut back/stop.
I lost a good friend, in his mid 30's, to alcoholism. It was a painful experience watching his life fall apart before he died. Good job, family life and outside interests. But he was always the last one out of the pub after a football match or training, always wanting a swift one to finish off. Then it was 5 pints in the hour lunch break at work. At this point he pulled back from all his friends, probably fed up of being badgered to cut back/stop.
backwoodsman
Tour Winner
This is a bit out of left field for this time of morning Bob - it been on the radio or TV or something?.
No one ever chose to be an alcoholic.
But until one can give a convincing or substantive definition of "disease" then l fear its an argument that can only go round in circles. (I mean, and sorry Papas, but what the hell is a "true illness" ? )
And while l think of it, you can't "catch" cancer, multiple sclerosis or schiztophrenia, so l presume they aren't diseases by that criterion?
No one ever chose to be an alcoholic.
But until one can give a convincing or substantive definition of "disease" then l fear its an argument that can only go round in circles. (I mean, and sorry Papas, but what the hell is a "true illness" ? )
And while l think of it, you can't "catch" cancer, multiple sclerosis or schiztophrenia, so l presume they aren't diseases by that criterion?
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What I meant, maybe worded poorly is that an illness is something that strikes you down without any of your own influence. Be that mental illness, a cold, cancer or anything else.
So whilst addiction can maybe termed as a mental illness, they chose originally to drink, smoke etc.
Kellfire
Blackballed
If someone chooses to smoke and it leads to lung cancer, do we not call the lung cancer a disease because the person made a choice to smoke?
If someone chooses not to exercise and eat rubbish food and develops a blocked coronary artery, do we not call that a disease?
If someone chooses not to sit up properly in bed before vomiting and subsequently inhales some, do we not call the subsequent aspiration pneumonia a disease?
If someone chooses to have a drink and ends up mentally unable to stop drinking, do we not call the subsequent alcoholism a disease?
If someone chooses not to exercise and eat rubbish food and develops a blocked coronary artery, do we not call that a disease?
If someone chooses not to sit up properly in bed before vomiting and subsequently inhales some, do we not call the subsequent aspiration pneumonia a disease?
If someone chooses to have a drink and ends up mentally unable to stop drinking, do we not call the subsequent alcoholism a disease?
Slab
Occasional Tour Caddy
Not a disease, i'd describe it as a condition
PhilTheFragger
Provider of Entertainment for the Golfing Gods 🙄
Think it’s following on from SILH ‘s post on the Butch Wilkins thread last night.
I would also class it as an addictive personality disorder, but when it manifests itself the symptoms are disease like and need to be treated as such, same with any form of extreme addiction.
But it starts off as a choice, it’s knowing when to stop before it takes over
MegaSteve
Tour Winner
Whatever you want to call it...
Minimum unit pricing ain't gonna cure 'it'...
In fact it'll probably cause more pain...
Minimum unit pricing ain't gonna cure 'it'...
In fact it'll probably cause more pain...
IanM
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It's a illness all right.... which often starts with bad choices.... but different people haven't different levels of propensity to be at risk from it.
How you label it doesn't change its effects
How you label it doesn't change its effects
None of those are the same. If an alcoholic gets liver faulure due to his addiction, that would be comparable.
Kellfire
Blackballed
They're about people making lifestyle choices that lead to an illness.
Bunkermagnet
Journeyman Pro
Maybe they are, but with modern drugs, treatments and understandings people can live longer after help is given. Years ago you’d just be dead.
Orikoru
Tour Winner
I don't think disease is the right word, no.
SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
AA talk of alcoholism as a disease of mind, body and spirit (often manifest as if an allergy) partly as a belief that it is, and partly as doing so helps explain and make easier for alcoholics to understand why they drink as they do. And this is not just the type of drink, the volumes drunk, or how frequently - but importantly the nature of their drinking - which can have been quite unusual and actually abnormal from an early age before easy access to alcohol or social circumstances or pressures kicked in.
As non-alcoholics we might not consider alcoholism a disease in the generally understood meaning of the word - but consider the Oxford English dictionary definitions of the word disease
1. a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.
2. A particular quality or disposition regarded as adversely affecting a person or group of people.
...and so we shouldn't simply think alcoholism as being something that is willingly and deliberately self-inflicted by the individual, and hence that we should only provide support to the individual alcoholic on that basis.
As non-alcoholics we might not consider alcoholism a disease in the generally understood meaning of the word - but consider the Oxford English dictionary definitions of the word disease
1. a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.
2. A particular quality or disposition regarded as adversely affecting a person or group of people.
...and so we shouldn't simply think alcoholism as being something that is willingly and deliberately self-inflicted by the individual, and hence that we should only provide support to the individual alcoholic on that basis.
SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
...and this is where the debate sits...
jim8flog
Journeyman Pro
If alcoholism is a disease then so is golf.
Kellfire
Blackballed
The WHO include it in ICD-10 but as a mental disorder.
