No! The Big Book says that there are heavy drinkers that can quit in an instant. I believe it and have seen it happen, but then again there are alcoholics who are truly addicted to the stuff...yes, my opinion is we ARE addicts..thanks for lettin' me share!!

Never mind~You're saying the reason that we don't drink is because we are alcoholics, right?
Got 'ya!! :)

DUH! I just didn't "gette" it. LOL!!

Those who are physically addicted to alcohol will require a detox whether they are alcoholic or not (which many aren't). Alcoholics do not always need to be detoxed as they are NOT physically addicted. Doctors although often ignorant about alcoholism can usually spot physical addiction a mile away!

Maybe 4mytasha you were only physically addicted and NOT suffering from a disease.

I think it's a disease. I think BiPolar Disorder is a disease also. I have both diseases. Just because they're diseases doesn't mean I WASN'T possessed by demons, but I dont know what that means...

It isnt difficult to know whether you are/were physically addicted to alcohol or not. If you suffer(ed) withdrwal when you stop(ped) drinking then you are, if you dont/didnt you arent.

I know many people who are alcoholics who stopped drinking without physical withdrawal. The point is that they are still alcoholics even though they werent physically addicted.

There is no JUST addicted, physical addiction to anything is a serious problem. It just isnt the exact same thing as alcoholism, in my experience.

The way I see my alcoholism is that it had a great side effect in the early days in that it allowed me to escape the world. However that is not why I drank the way I did, that was because I was an alcoholic. Long after it stopped working as an escape mechanism I still couldnt stop.

I am not here to say whether anyone is an alcoholic or not. However if I had only helped people on the basis that they were addicted to alcohol I would have turned my back on a lot of alcoholics.

That should have read that alcoholics are not NECESSARILY physically addicted.

It's been a long time since I had a drink, so at this stage of my recovery I can no longer blame my peculiar thinking and exaggerated sense of self-reference directly on alcohol. Whether we call that a disease ir not is a matter of moral and medical semantics. But what neuroscientists have shown is that there are observable and measurable brain wave differences between alcoholics and non-alcoholics, and these can be transmitted genetically.

In the late 70s, Henri Begleiter and B. Porjesz at the State University of NY in Brooklyn attached electrodes to detect a brain wave, designated P300, to the scalps of 25 boys aged 7-13 who were sons of alcoholic fathers, with a control group of 25 boys who had no family history of drug or alcohol addiction. The reasoning behind the experiment was that alcoholics and only alcoholics emit low frequencies of this particular brain wave. However, none of the boys in either group had themselves ever used alcohol or drugs, and the researchers conducting the tests were "blind" to the family history of each boy.

The goal was to explore electrophysiological "markers" to identify children at risk. They found that in response to visual stimuli, the sons of alcoholic fathers had a measurably lower amplitude of P300 brain waves. However, they cautioned that the results were not conclusive as a diagnostic predictor of later addictive behavior. Even so, the finding suggests that addiction is much more of a medical and genetic mystery than either the moralists or the self-help gurus can confidently address with didactic or formulaic solutions.

yes...

I have to disagree on that serenity~If you're saying someone who is physically addicted needs to detox, I did not detox.
(But I'M not saying I was addicted or an alcoholic.)
My X, who was told IS an alcoholic, who drinks everyday, was suggested he would need to go into rehab.
Whether either of us are alcohlics or JUST addicted really makes no difference, IMO.

Again, to reply to #21, I don't agree.
But, I'm outta here.
No point in fighting who is or who isn't as long as the person realizes there's a problem and does something about it is all that matters.

Are you trying to have the last word 4mt??

addiction is a sick disease that can wreak havok in our life.it can remanifest itself in differant areas if we dont treat ourselves with a twelve step program to kill the root of it.its just my opinion but i've suffered alcoholism,drug addiction,eating disorders,so on and so on til i got to the program and now i feel whole.

Ok, this could probably be a totally different thread, but I think what really gets me is the stigma attatched to alcoholism.
For me, alcoholism doesn't run in my family. However, my grandfather was a "rageaholic" and my mom is an overeater and goes to OA. I got alcoholism. That's why I think it's some kind of gene that passes on "addictive behavior" that obviously won't manifest into alcoholism if you never pick up a drink to begin with but may manifest into other addictions - food, gambling, etc.
Now, my mom got diabetes later in life, so did my sister - both as a result as overeating = change in body = disease. Cancer caused by smoking is the same thing, so why do I know so many alcoholics who duck into meetings because they don't want work or anyone else to know, when I don't know of anyone diagnosed with other diseases ducking into hospitals for treatment? Yeah, bottom line is I'm grateful to be sober, just pissed at the stigma attatched.

My God what difference does it make addiction not an addiction genetic environmental whatever.
The point is if you have a drinking problem then deal with it and quit making excuses.
To clarify this is not directed at any one in paticular and is not saying you aren't dealing with it.
If you are dying because you are bleeding to death from a huge gash does it really matter whether the glass was brown, green, clear?

Don't like the subject, because it is rough on my brain. It gets complicated with me, when I think of people with cancer, that really, "don't have a choice".

All I 100% do know is that it is a sickness that will fuck you 4-way; family, spirit, mentally, & physically.

Physically poses a question with me to. I remained in the gym, and took good care of myself. However my hangovers were horrific and kept me in bed the whole next day. Most times I wouldn't drink for a few days.
Binge drinking type.