Why Do People Say Alcholism Is a Disease ?

Question by Dee: Why do people say alcholism is a disease ?
this kinda upsets me , because a disease is something that you have no control over that your body dose on it’s own , you have the choice to purchase alchol , you have the choice to go to treatments , so if alchol is a disease than i guess you can say any addiction is a disease …i think it’s a addiction not a disease , i was a smoker for 15 years and quite , so since can i say i had a disease ?? i didnt have a disease i was nicotine addict and chose to stop ..i honestly wish someone can make me see the light , i honestly dont understand
navyexwife , I didnt say i was able to overcome my addiction without help , believe me quiting smoking was VERY HARD , but i used the support groups to my avantage and overcame it ..A disease is defined as a organ or body part that dose not function correctly so alcohlism , addictions in general are not a disease..and if it is indeed a disease which nobody has shown me different yet , there is indeed a cure , it’s called detox and rehab , it’s there choice not to treat there so called “disease” ..I bet you a cancer patient or a hiv patient would jump on any chance for a cure , so i dont think it’s fair to call it a disease , and almost insulting to those who do indeed have real diseaes

Best answer:

Answer by Navyexwife
Because it is
Alcoholics surrender their control to their vice
And you could say any addiction is a disease
Addicts need help, just because you were able to overcome yours without help, does not mean everyone else can

Once you live with an alcohol addict or a drug addict or a sex addict and see how powerless they are to their addiction, you do realize it is out of their control
They are sick, and they need help
Was not trying to put you down, it is admirable what you did, some people cannot, even with support groups, they need drastic outside intervention when they do want to change

Answer by brakes_pegs_lucky
One of the first things I was taught in AA is that some people may never understand the nature of our disease and that is okay. On the scientific side of things, It has been shown that alcoholics and heroin addicts develop a chemical in the brain that never goes away (even if they become sober) that when drugs or alcohol are ingested it triggers this chemical to provoke cravings that are severe and uncontrollable to keep drinking/using. That is why they say once and alcoholic, always an alcoholic, even if you don’t drink anymore. Because even if you haven’t drank in 10 years, that chemical is still there so to try to just have a ‘few’ is virtually impossible because the first drink will trigger that chemical in the brain to kick into HIGH gear. When a person who is susceptible to the disease abuses alcohol or drugs it permanently changes the chemistry of their body. When I was in my addiction, I tried and tried and tried not to drink. I tried so hard not to buy alcohol. It was as if my free will had been taken from me. Imagine a time in your life when you felt like you were absolutely starving. Now imagine that you were never supposed to eat ever again because it could kill you, or cause you to kill someone else (drunk driving). That is what it felt like to me. My brain and body were so messed up from drinking that I was like a completely different person. My father died from alcoholism and in now way did I want to follow in his footsteps, but there I was at the age of 25, drinking 24 hours a day. I had to drink to not be sick. I shook when I didn’t have alcohol in my system. I couldn’t function because I would become violently ill if I didn’t keep drinking because my body was so addicted to it. I had to spend four months in rehab to overcome my illness. Mind you that I had tried rehab 4 other times before that. Alot of people’s insurances won’t cover a treatment that lengthy, a 10-30day program often isn’t enough. For some it takes a good deal of time to heal the body and let it get used to not having drugs in it. Ever have caffeine withdrawl? Adjusting to not having alcohol or drugs in your system is much much worse. I commend you for quitting smoking. I think that there should be rehabs for that because if it was simply as easy as quitting on their own then I don’t know how many people would continue smoking.

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