I can always get into a good argument by bringing this very controversy up. Personally, I don't care whether you call it a disease. The solution is the same either way... quit drinking, get a life and find a purpose in life that doesn't involve having the world revolve around you. And yes, some people actually do use the disease model as an excuse, which is why I don't see any value in using that approach; but I suppose those who use it as an excuse would probably come up with another reason to "relapse" if they couldn't blame it on their disease.

Ditto nondrinker

I've seen that episode, it seems to make sense, and it might be true for some people. Some people can drink and have fun then put it down, some people can't. I've tried the south park approach, doesn't work for me, I can't put it down. I'm not sure if it's a disease or not, in my opinion there is usually some underlying psychological disorder that leads to the addictive behavior. For me I think it's the anxiety, I crave drinking so much because I know it will cure it, even if just for a short time. Somewhere in my mind the temporary relief outweighs the fact I will be even more anxious when I run out of booze. I think I need to keep my anxiety at bay and figure out if there's any other underlying issues behind my self medicating. A disease? Probably not, but probably a symptom of another disease.

Lots of people ask just what your asking about alcoholism. I had a very hard time understanding it, because I had a very limited understanding of what disease actually meant. Like yourself, I thought that was an easy word to just cope out. At one time I tried using it as an excuse for the things I did, and the way I acted, but I knew that was bullshit. My understanding of it now is that it is a spiritual disease, and that's nothing to do with religion. It's something that I allowed into my life at some point out of ignorence, and it just eventually grew until I had no controle and needed help with. It eventually changed the ways I thought, and the way my brain reacted to alcohol. Eventually it distorted my perceptions and the ways I thought. I developed a lot of dilusions about all kinds of things because of the progression of alcohol, and eventually found my life very miserable because of it, but because of the changes that ocured in my ways of thinking, found that I just could not stop. Even with many very bad consequences, and knowing that it was going to kill me, I had gotten to the point that I just couldn't stop starting. Instead of being fun like the old days, and feeling good, alcohol just was making me more, and more sick. There are other ways that people describe alcoholism as a disease. You can find that in the big book. Hope this helped a bit. James

The DSM IV classifies it as a class 1 mental illness, earlier theories that refered to it as an allergy are no longer taken seriously by the medical community. The behaviors fit with alot of other obsessive disorders, and it has a high rate of overlap with other mental illnesses.

Personally, I know is that if I go back to drinking, the consequences will be tragic. So while I appreciate your attempt at snarky oversimplification, keep in mind that many of us cannot afford to take our cues from South Park. It's not all that funny to those of us that live with it.

I recently relapsed, and had a rude awakening! When I was in the program of AA a while back I analized everything even this disease thing. At this point I just need to accept that I'm an alcohoic and not try to analize it. The most important thing is for me to stay sober. Not worry about if it's a disease or not.

I don't know. Maybe crack open another bottle and ponder it some more. Let me know what you come up with.

ye ds this old onion does come up every now and again as coogee stated
Its proberbly interesting for those new or newish around.I know it used to fascinate me,still does ocasionally so i read the replie of all my friends on here. Many whose judgement ive come to appriciate and respect And hey no suprise i could have dito'd most of the replies
Because we have a certain history I know that most are sober for considerable lengths of time
Also it is a fine summer morning here so thought i'd go for a bike ride in the park goya as one of our friends puts it

I can remember my mother telling me when I was in my teens "You're allergic to alcohol!!" because I would change radically in my behavior. That was way before I was introduced to AA and the disease aspect of alcoholism. I know it to be true today.

It's treatable. There's a solution to recover from it. That's all I care about.

Some folks like to argue the disease factor for the sake of argument. Doesn't really matter to me. I choose to do what I need to do so I don't pick up.

~Chris

I always smile when I read comments that say things like, "it's a disease but only you can tell if you have it." That sounds loopy to me -- only I can tell if I have this disease?

That doesn't sound like a disease. And I don't think that smokers have a disease either (obviously I am not considering the effects of drinking like liver disease or smoking like lung cancer.) I think it is an addiction. But I don't care. It can be a disease, it can be an addiction. Either way I am not going to drink.

IT is what you make it. Its a very cureable disease. not at all easy but it can be done.

The reason people go around in circles with this disease notion is that alcoholism involves both a disease and choice. A disease is an involuntary disability (from NCADD definition of alcoholism). You can't help it if you can't control your drinking once you start. You can't help it if you have brain chemistry which makes it hard to control your drinking. You can't help it if you have the DTs or cirrhosis of the liver. But you can decide not to take that first drink. That's where the disease stops and free choice begins.