re: Alcoholism: Why Is It A Disease?

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, you can't just quit having cancer all of a sudden

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You can't just quit being an alcoholic either. You're an alcoholic for the rest of your life.

Even if you do stop drinking, your mind still begs you to drink constantly. And if you do drink, your mind will not want you to stop.

It is not something that goes away. Ever.

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, you can't just quit having cancer all of a sudden


You can't just quit being an alcoholic either. You're an alcoholic for the rest of your life.

Even if you do stop drinking, your mind still begs you to drink constantly. And if you do drink, your mind will not want you to stop.

It is not something that goes away. Ever.

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I can physically make someone stop drinking.....really wanting to do something really really bad doesn't give you the right to give in to your impulses either. Sorry week minded people, nut up

I think it boils down to this:

People are incorrectly assuming people with alcoholism cannot control their drinking.

There are hundreds of thousands of alcoholics that do not drink. The disease portion of it is their brain telling them they need a drink. It is constant and unrelenting. They have no control over that.

The drinking part they have control over, but the disease is that urge to drink that they constantly have to fight.

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really wanting to do something really really bad doesn't give you the right to give in to your impulses either.

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The right? Ummm, they absolutely have the right to give into their impulses to drink

The disease aspect of this is the brain constantly telling them to drink and drink and drink. They have absolutely no control over that and without experiencing it yourself and understanding how strong of an urge it is, you are talking out of your arse.

This isn't "oh man, I really want some sweets!". This is "my brain cannot function or focus on a single thing besides getting alcohol". It can be incapacitating.

I agree acting on those urges is under their control, but its not easy like you are nonchalantly saying it is. It is often the hardest thing an alcoholic will ever do in their life, and they have to do it every day all day.

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Institutionalized is one I hear a lot by people who want to make excuses for someone being an a-hole in the workplace.

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Never heard that outside of a prison setting. Usually refers to inmates that have been in jail so long, they don't know how to function as a part of civilized society on the outside.

It often leads to recidivism.

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Is a mental illness a disease now?

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Mental illness can technically be a disease.

When someone is addicted. Whether it is to alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc.. They are not able to just stop. A friend of my went to rehab a few times for gambling. When I gamble, my goal is to win money. I cash out when I am up and I gamble on things in which there is some type of decision making involved.

My friend, who has gone to rehab a few times told me one day that to him, it's not about winning money. If he does win, that just means he gets to gamble longer. It's about being in the action. Because of this addiction he has stolen thousands of dollars from his parents and siblings, has asked people to borrow money by telling them some story as to why he wasn't able to get the money at that exact time, assured them he would pay them back and never did.

He didn't want to steal from his family, but his need to play was greater than anything else. It's something that is out of their control. That applies to any addiction. He was also once a drug addict, which he went to rehab for.

His dad had an extremely addictive personality. In order for him to stop one vice, he would have to start another one.

All I know is that the brain is extremely complicated and powerful.

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15 day inpatient rehab in Warrior, AL cost my insurance provider $20,000 and I'm not shitting you

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I believe you. People have no idea how expensive rehab is. It's a college education in 90 days. Think how many parents can't afford to send their kids to college, and then think of the ones that can but wisely saved up their entire lives for their kid to go to college. This comes up unexpectedly and you blow it out in 3 months. How people can rise to that occasion? It's certainly less than 20% of the population. If we listen to people like tigerdude, this where we'll be in the not too distant future:

They urged everyone to stay longer than what the insurance would cover and it was some ungodly amount per day which I kindly elected to not do

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They urged everyone to stay longer than what the insurance would cover and it was some ungodly amount per day which I kindly elected to not do

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I never went through insurance. Checked in places to dry out, left shortly after.