Alcoholism Recovery & Treatment

I would consider alcoholism a disease, simply because it is a disease in the MIND. All other examples you listed (Asthmatics, and stomach ulcers) do not effect the mind as Alcohol does. The alcohol to an alcoholic is the same as food and water is to most people, something that thier ‘body/mind’ requires to be maintained. You are comparing apples and oranges. It is categorized as a disease simply to lessen the stigma of being an alcoholic, thereby creating less shame and encourage treatment. “If I have a disease, it must be treatable,” rather than, “I am an alcoholic, and I am a hopeless untreatable looser.” Get it?

To start with – your analogy is inane. Give a crack addict $20 – and see what he does with it. Now, as to compare certain diseases to each other, as if they are an absolute vacuum is also inane. Not bashing you – just pointing out when comparing “like” things (a simile) you need to consider the comparisons you are making.

With that said – my father is an alcoholic. His father was an alcoholic. My brother never drinks, my sister drinks everyday and I have identified a problem with alcohol – so I have consciously limited my intake – and drink a few beers every few weeks. I can remember attenting Ala Teen, Ala Non, etc during my fathers stay at a rehab. At first I didn’t think it was a disease – but considered not my desire to drink – but what happens if and when I don’t drink. I personally have found it is far easier to quit drinking than smoking cigs – so cigs are “addictive” and not a disease.
Many consider alcohol a disease, many just an addiciton – so the quesiton is – is it an addiciton or a disease, not just a choice, which is your comparison.
The reason alcohol is considered by many a disease is beacuse you are genetically “programmed” to consume alcohol, of which you don’t necessarily have a choice. Diabetes is also a disease – but many battle it because they continue to eat high levels of sugar, unchecked – and in many cases without insulin shots. Therefore – is diabetes a disease or an addiction to sugar?
I believe alcohol is a disease that can be controlled through choice, in the same way diabetes is a disease that is also controlled by choice, pre need for insulin.
And whether or not it is labeled a disease, does not “enable” anyone. Enabling would be to state it is a disease and nothing can be done about it – so you should keep drinking. I can’t find 1 person, Dr or group who enables through defining it as a disease.
Good day.

It is a disease. Alcoholism cannot be cured, only arrested. Treatment is not always successful, and relies on the alcoholic’s ability to control their addiction. In 1956, the American Medical Association (AMA) determined alcoholism to be a disease because it met all 5 AMA criteria necessary to be such: pattern of symptoms, chronic, progressive, subject to relapse, and treatable. The disease of alcoholism can also be fatal.