Alcoholism Isnt A Disease 3

Anonymous Article

Medicine has made leaps and bounds over

the past century in terms of treatment of

illness and disease. We have dedicated

many areas of science to developing

courses of treatment and development of

new medicines to treat diseases. There is a

lot of debate and speculation in the medical

field regarding alcoholism. While many addiction

specialists call alcoholism a disease, by definition it is not a disease.

Rather, alcoholism is a choice. When we think of disease, we think

of things beyond our control. Nobody asks for a disease. According

to the American Medical Association, the definition of

disease changes constantly. It can be any abnormal

condition which is undesireable. In that case, we can

assume just about any kind of deviant behavior or

undesireable actions can be considered a disease. If this

is how we define disease, then by all accounts a person

who robs gas stations has a disease, since their behavior

causes undesireable results. Alcoholism is a choice. When

therapists and pop psychologists began giving the term

"disease" to alcoholism, they strip the alcoholic of

responsibility for his or her actions.

An alcoholic has two choices: 1. Drink 2. Don't drink. We

could go so far as to say that somebody who abuses

alcohol uses poor judgement. I would not go so far as to

say he has a disease. He made a bad choice. He drank.

He didn't become afflicted with a condition he had no

choice in. He decided to drink, and he became addicted.

It is that cut and dried. Many people disagree with the

concept of alcoholism being a choice. About 90% of the

United States population would say, if asked, that

alcoholism is a disease. This is only because in today's

society we have taken all accountability off the person

who chose to drink. Addiction treatment is a multi-million

dollar industry. If we were to take the term "disease"

away from the addiction to alcohol, it makes the addict

accountable himself. It also means insurance companies

would fail to pay the cost of receiving help for addiction.

This means addiction recovery treatment would no longer

bring in the amount of revenue it does. It also means that

people would have to face the ugly fact that they are

responsible for their own behaviors, rather than blaming

something else for their undesireable actions. Even in

addiction treatment, accountability is often left out of the

treatment program, which begs the question: how do

people ever plan to make better choices? If there is

always going to be somebody or something else to blame,

won't those scapegoats always be there? People can

seldom count on making better choices, like not to drink,

if they know there is a percieved acceptable excuse for

making poor choices--like labeling those choices as a

disease.

Alcoholism Isnt A Disease 3 Anonymous Article.

Raging Alcoholic