mcmeekle said:

i still hold to my statement... but thanks... i appreciate that a lot...

But I'm a "happy" drunk! None of that loud, crazy, violent stuff with me!

You can't choose not to be a diabetic. You can choose not to drink. People do it every day.

It might run in your family (it runs in mine), but this doesn't make it a disease, just a predisposition. People die from Heroin and there's nothing genetic required to get addicted.

teller said:

you can choose not to drink, yes... but you can't choose not to be an alcoholic... big difference...

EllisDee said:

Right, gotcha.

http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org

Great place if anyone needs some help. Was surprised at all this talk on alcoholism and no mention of this great organization.

I'd say it was a disease. I have a nephew who just cannot overcome his alcholism...

It is heart breaking, he has so much determination to overcome it, and then something happens and he is right back to alcohol..

if a person smokes cigarettes for 20+ years and developes cancer as a direct result of that behavior, is the cancer less of a disease?

obviously many people smoke, but do not develop lung cancer. so, certain people have a greater predisposition to develop it, but that does not change the essential nature of what it is.

as ellisdee states, drinking is a behavior, addiction is a disease.
[This message was edited Wed Feb 19 10:20:07 PST 2003 by medoc2003]

It is a disease. Why because not everyone that ever has a drink becomes an alcoholic. "Alcoholism the repeated excessive use of alochol and the decreased ability to function socially and vocationally"(Websters) I was a functioning alcholic.Persons with addictive personalities are more prone to develop a problem. It doesn't matter how u start there is a helpless feeling because no matter how much u want too...u just can't stop. I stopped drinking one day sitting out side a liquor store in tears. I struggle everyday to fight the urge to drink.
I still today refuse to call myself an alcoholic because I hide it so well from people. I held a job. I only drank socially and not before noon. I was the queen of denial. then I found myself drinking for any excuse that I could find. choosing it over food. Liquid courage. The desire never ever goes away. the only thing more powerful then the craving is the desire not to go back to a very dark and lonely place. Growing up in a family of herion addicts I justified it. well it's not a drug. Wrong just a drug that is so accepted that you can buy it in the grocery store.

EllisDee said:

I was SO ready to just call it an addiction & move on - I'd never thought about it in this way. Thanks for being so open EllisDee, I learned something here...

addiction foo!!!

CalhounSq said:

i was initially going to skip right over this thread, until i noticed that there were a bunch of people talking about alcoholics, but no one was talking about if first hand...

i like sharing this stuff with people if i think they'll take anything from it (like you did, thanks for letting me know), but sometimes it sucks when you're the expert on something and not because you researched it in a book... ...

EllisDee said:

But it never sucks to focus on the positive You're dealing with it & you're winning, that's what really matters

it's a disease ... no question... the same as drug addiction

MrBliss said:

CalhounSq said:

(geez, that little bastard is creepy)... the , that is... not you... :LOL: