Comments on: It’s not a disease.. poor me another

By: JT

JT — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 02:43:41 +0000

If you use alcohol to cope with issues, that is usually more under the heading of ‘alcohol abuse’. Abusing alcohol and having the ‘disease’ alcoholism are two separate things. This confusion is very common.

Alcoholics drink whether they have an issue or not. Typically, their drinking ‘leads’ to issues, as opposed to drinking to deal (or not deal as the case may be) with the issue.

Otherwise, I agree about the symptom to a greater ill, but I believe that ill may be a totally different disease. Perhaps a larger classification of some type; the same way that fever, coughing and sputum could be symptoms of bronchitus.

By: Boaterbob

Boaterbob — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 15:21:39 +0000

I’m not convinced that genetics is the cause or excuse for someone being and alcoholic. I might be willing to concede genetics has and effect on the coping mechanism if there is one. In my personal experience and observations of my relatives on both sides, there seems to be a correlation between “issues” in the individuals life and their adult beverage consumtion.
It seems to me that in all cases when and individual turns to injesting something, they do it to avoid or escape something. Most members of my family that I have observed over indulging, did so in a particularly challenging stressful stage in their life and afterward in their later years no longer do so, yet they can have a drink now, for example, and not get on the slide of one after another. Perhaps genetics plays a role in the choice of substances but I am not convinced it plays a role in a weakness or disease.
I guess what I am offering up for discussion is, people resorting to control substances is a symptom of a greater ill. I suggest a discussion of the pressures and social ills and influences. Topic title suggestion… “Coping with life today without turning to shit” or “Resignation, The World is Going to Hell, so I’ll just drink through it.”

By: JT

JT — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 13:06:21 +0000

A book recommendation.. excellent. The social stigma is actually what I am so critical of. I think alcoholism was labeled a disease almost on prima facia. Consider these two different syntaxes for the problem.

“He has a drinking problem” and “he has a problem and it is relieved by drinking.” I think current research and lines of thought seem glued to the first sentence, which also has with it a social stigma. The second sentence is one that I’m curious about, that I think may have a potentially enlightening path, as it were. (not cure, just.. another path)

Panther, as far as genetic disorders go, I’m convinced so far they are very real. And it’s not hard for me to understand them as I consider that similar to poorly written code for a program. It needs to be ‘debugged’ as it were, and a flaw in the program will lead to funky outputs. Do I think that makes these murderers and rapists with a genetic disorder free from penalty? – that’s where I look to Adkenar’s comment.

Adkenar, I’ve known quite a few ‘recovering’ alcoholics who seem to do something just like that. It’s never perfect, mind you. The self-designed repair includes coping mechanisms that are either intentional or side-effects unbeknownst to them. It also has a low success rate and a high tendency for relapse. It is ideal to repair yourself (something I’m positive the mind has the capability to do).

I’ve always wondered where personality variation stops and disorders begin. Sure, you can point me to a DSM-IV diagnosis book and it will dilineate those disorders out nicely, but I can draw lines in the sand, too. To be fair, some diseases have very obvious neural differences in brain structure and function that are clearly not normal, but these seratonin level based problems seem like a bell-curve of expected deviations from the norm (like a bag of peanut M&M’s, there’s always a few missing the nut and the occasional double-nutter as well).