Alcoholism – A Disease?

Now before I start on the more sensitive issues of this topic let me just say that I am sick to death with celebrities who have had addictions in the past calling them Diseases.  Russell Brand, Charlie Sheen, Amy Winehouse, Diano Ross, Stephen King etc are all people I really respect.  But then they come out with this tripe and say that their ADDICTION is a disease.

Personally, I think saying something about a lifestyle which is dangerous and blaming it on an illness is a smack in the face to ever Cancer sufferer out there, from the children too weak to lift their own head to the elderly chap who has had a ‘good innings’ but leaves this world with zero dignity and a shadow of the man that he used to be.

When Charlie Sheens Dad comes out and says ‘Charlie is battling a cancer like illness’ (although acting in the best interests of his son) he loses respect from me.  I seriously doubt that people with such a terrible, life threatening illness don’t go down to the Offy every morning and buy 2 litres of M.S.

I used to smoke 35 cigs a day.  A horrible habit.  But when I found out my then girlfriend was pregnant I stopped the moment I found out.  I still have the packet with 5 left in it.  Stopping smoking was the hardest thing I have ever had to do and I’ve never got over it.  I loved smoking and at this moment there is nothing stopping me from going to the shop and buying a packet, but I won’t.  That is a part of my previous lifestyle which I don’t have anymore… I can turn my back on past ‘addictions’ – unlike a terminally ill human being.

Am I the only person that this infuriates?

No, you're not alone on this one.

Alcoholism is terrible, and the root of many of today's problems in the West. For example, some of the stupid things done by some celebrities and sportspeople. To me, it is a drug, and affects many families. It's also responsible for deaths caused by drunk drivers, etc.

It doesn't infuriate me as such but calling alcoholism a disease to someone who's lost someone to cancer is a kick in the teeth. After watching two people in my life wither away from that god forsaken disease will stay with me forever and that infuriates me to no end.

One of the things that infuriates the most about cancer is that they constantly tell us what MAY cause cancer, I've heard some ridiculous sh*te that causes cancer over the last few years on the mainstream news (BBC, Sly etc) from bananas, carrots, chips and there's a programme on BBC recently that said Oral Sex causes F***ing cancer. Just F**k off.

My sister lived a healthy, clean lifestyle and in one of our chats towards the end as she sat looking like a lady who had aged 40 years in 4 months she asked me what was the point, 5 a day, all that healthy living for nothing. I couldn't answer the question honestly so I never. I've burnt the candle at both ends, stimulated myself in many ways over the years and there I am sat in front of my sister healthy but with a certain sense of guilt.

Sorry andy, just realised I went off on a diatribe there, to answer your original question, alcoholism to me is one of two things. It can be used or suffered. Some people use alcohol in a self medication form, something at some point happened that they need/want to forget and alcohol can facilitate this. Some can also be 'suffer' from alcoholism because it's all they've ever known, dad/mum done it and they are just continuing the cycle and given todays society's propensity for combining alcoholism with drug addiction the future isn't exactly rosey.

In short (bit late I know) alcoholism is NOT comparable with cancer in any way, shape or form. It's an addiction, get annoyed by the 'celebrity'  fashion of calling someone who 'suffers' from it as having a disease but don't let everyone who has the addiction annoy you, down that road lay madness.

I might not have explained myself too well there but I got a bit off my chest so cheers mate.

2 great posts there for this debate.  I didn’t want to offend anybody by starting this topic, I was just airing my views.

LFCexiled - I’m sorry for the loss of your sister
Bad boy – I’m glad for you and your recovery from addiction.  Well done mate.

What I would like to know from you, as you have been in the shitty situation before, is that after the initial sickness from withdrawals after the first few days/weeks.  When your body fights itself but soon regains health…  How can you say that it is a disease?  Surely the rest is will power and self-discipline?

Fair enough Bub. Personally, it's the whole comparable with cancer aspect that gets me but I fully respect the fact that as one who's walked the walk your opinion matters more than most.

I have to say, I've lost relatives to cancer one my Grandmother and one my 6 year old cousin and I've also just very recently I.E the last couple of months lost two close friends to Alcoholism, one of those the grandparent to my nieces and nephews, whilst you may like not to call alcoholism a disease its an indiscriminate killer just like Cancer.

Cancer is a genetic disease a mutation in the genes that effects 1 in 3 people, if that gene is switched on the sufferer will be involved in a battle for their life, the very much same applies with alcoholism it is a genetically inherited disease that if switched on, can also lead the sufferer towards a battle for their life.

So whilst you may not agree that it is not a disease, there is geneologists out there with a far greater understanding of human genetics that state otherwise.

the whole comparable with cancer aspect that gets me

Same here

I have to say, I've lost relatives to cancer one my Grandmother and one my 6 year old cousin and I've also just very recently I.E the last couple of months lost two close friends to Alcoholism, one of those the grandparent to my nieces and nephews, whilst you may like not to call alcoholism a disease its an indiscriminate killer just like Cancer.

Cancer is a genetic disease a mutation in the genes that effects 1 in 3 people, if that gene is switched on the sufferer will be involved in a battle for their life, the very much same applies with alcoholism it is a genetically inherited disease that if switched on, can also lead the sufferer towards a battle for their life.

So whilst you may not agree that it is not a disease, there is geneologists out there with a far greater understanding of human genetics that state otherwise.

You see this is what I don’t get, but I want to understand.

How can it be genetic.  Cancer is in my family and everyone around me has suffered from it, I know that I may be heading for it also in my (hopefully) later years.

But to inherit alcoholism is to place an awful lot of that blame on to the person, after all they are the people who buy and consume the alcohol rather than being born with an affliction, such as AIDs.

But I would like to know how…

I could never be an alcoholic, to bloody expensive 

Nothing wrong to me with calling alcoholism a disease, but comparing it to cancer makes me a bit uncomfortable. Cancer probably is the worst disease out there right now.

To get further into the genetics of cancer and alcoholism. Why their origins are both that complicated is because to some degree their origins can lie in genetics, but they don't have to. Some people live a healthy life, but will still get cancer because of their genes. But the opposite is possible aswell. However, you don't need to have a genetic tendency to get cancer to actually get cancer. Alcoholism in that sense is the same, some people just have a bigger genetic tendency for alcoholism and addiction than others, if they have it all. But it's different for everyone. The same goes for smoking for instance. You have receptors in your brains, when you take nicotine those receptors release dopamine. This is what makes you feel good, relaxed and focussed when smoking a cigarette.(and makes you feel the opposite when you don't smoke) Genetics however determine how many of those receptors you start off with, and how fast you make more of them while smoking. This is one of the factors why a smoke addiction is different for everyone aswell, and why quitting will be harder for some than others. That's the case for most serious addictions.

Having dabbled with class A and B for a number of years was lucky enough to emerge relatively unscathed, a number of close friends however were not so lucky and I attended a funeral very recently of a lad I knew most of my life.
Like me he dabbled with the Bob Hope although in the last few years of his life he did become an alchohlic and having seen him over 30 years skip through a drug induced haze sometimes with me in accompanyment, the speed at which the booze stripped him of everything ultimately his life was heartbreaking.
I mention the narcotics to illustrate just how much of a drug alcohol is and I truly believe it's unbridled use more than matches heroin as an addictive entity, the difference however is that even heroin addiction can be controlled whereas continued misuse of alcohol is invariably fatal.
So I suppose it could be described as a disease in as much as addiction is a disease, the point I make however is that the dangers of succumbing to the disease/addiction of alcohol are vastly underplayed and people on arriving at that situation are already into the full lifestyle of the addict even before they will admit to it being that way.    

Ive lost 1 uncle to alcohol and the 2nd is on his way out.

My best freind is in and out of the priory because his liver flipps like a fish out of water when he does not get a drink and his brother had part of his colon removed due to alcohol.

My brother refuses to get help because he is in denial,i was the fortunate one who stopped all drinks and drugs 11 years ago when i became a muslim and took on the islamic faith which has helped me in more ways than one.

Alcohol is a disease.

Maybe too complicated for the layman:

Further evidence for the role of biology in alcoholism comes from efforts to discover electrophysiological markers that could indicate a predisposition to alcoholism. A marker of this type is the latency and the magnitude of the positive 300-millisecond (P300) EEG wave, which is an indicator of the general electrical activity of the brain that is evoked by a specific stimulus such as an audible tone. Abnormalities in the electrical activity of the brain are evident in the EEGs of young sons of alcoholic fathers. Their P300 waves are markedly reduced in amplitude compared to the P300 waves of sons of nonalcoholic fathers. ...

. ... Several experiments have been carried out since then to answer both questions. The alcoholic fathers had the same P300 EEG wave deficit found in their sons - and the sons showed increased drug-seeking behaviors (including alcohol and nicotine) compared to sons of nonalcoholic fathers. In addition, the sons of alcoholic fathers had an atypical neurocognitive profile (Whipple, Parker and Noble1988. Evidence now shows that children with P300 EEG abnormalities are more likely to abuse drugs and tobacco in later years(Berman, Whipple, Fitch and Noble 1993).
http://www.bma-wellness.com/papers/EtOH_Psychobiology.html

I'm not getting you at all here mate. 

I don't think i've ever heard an Alcoholic "blame" anyone. ....just as (I would hope) someone who has Cancer doesn't "blame" their parents.

Was there ever any doubt that alcoholism is genetic?

Alcohol is a disease.

AlcoholISM is a disease. Nothing wrong with the product itself.

I understand where people are coming from in the comparing to cancer department - but there are levels of disease. So okay, maybe its not on the same level as cancer but IMO it is still a disease. It's a disease of the mind, which can be just as deadly when you think about it. Trying to cure a disease of the mind can sometimes be just as futile and hopeless as some cancer treatments.

Whatever your views, never look down on alcoholism (or any addictions for that matter) as bbb said, they can creep up on you. I love a drink (as most know) but i make sure i don't make a habit of it every day or anything as im fully conscious of how quickly that descent can happen sometimes, especially under stress.

? Why give a celeb like George Best and others a good liver when they know they would never change?who deserves it more?

My mate's step dad (Roger) is in his mid 50s and my dad has known him since he was 16. Apparently he was always a heavy drinker, even at that age. According to my mate's mum, Roger has always been a very heavy drinker since she met him some 20 years ago so it's safe to say he's probably always been the same.
About 2 years a go now, Roger's behaviour started to change. He'd get over emotional at times, lie about trivial things and seemed to be getting more forgetful. Within a couple of months, he was constantly drunk. He lost his job, crashed his car and used to hide bottled of spirits all around the house and the garden. I'd see him walking past my house, glazed over on his way to Spar for more drink.
I'm happy to say that he got put into rehab and was one of the lucky ones who managed to get through it, although as others have said, you're never really free from alcoholism.
Just seems so weird that after all this time, it finally got hold of him.

My mate's step dad (Roger) is in his mid 50s and my dad has known him since he was 16. Apparently he was always a heavy drinker, even at that age. According to my mate's mum, Roger has always been a very heavy drinker since she met him some 20 years ago so it's safe to say he's probably always been the same.
I'm happy to say that he got put into rehab and was one of the lucky ones who managed to get through it, although as others have said, you're never really free from alcoholism.
Just seems so weird that after all this time, it finally got hold of him.

As you point out Rep it's not an overnight thing, the man has no doubt been a chronic alcoholic for years but hiding the situation is part of the addiction even refusing to admit there is a problem in the earlier stages. It's only when signs become grossley exaggerated and there is no physical way to disguise them that urgent medical attention is needed.

Alcohol played a big part in getting me where I am today, started drinking regularly at 13, and was a frequent clubber at 14-15.  But it's my fault, I don't blame the drink, the adverts, peer pressure etc., it was all my own fault.  Kicked out of 6th form because of my dreadful absenteeism, though mainly because I turned up drunk (though this was far from my first time) and although I was passing my A levels, they were certainly within their rights to boot me out.  I was a disruptive influence.  In retrospect, it was a good thing, I'd been on a destructive path way before the alcohol and realising it was a big step.  I still drink, though not at present as I'm on a self-enforced abstinence program.  I'm now trying  to get back into part-time education, I want to finish off what I started half a life time ago, because now I'm ready.  Was an angry young man, for various reasons, now I'm ready to move on, forgiven the people I needed to and asked for the same from the people I hurt.  Some of the hurt in the past is still part of my life, but now it informs rather than affects it.

? Why give a celeb like George Best and others a good liver when they know they would never change?who deserves it more?

I do not think he got a "good" liver.

I remember when he got his chance, and we discussed it in work. We felt as he was private, he payed for the liver, and that liver would have been rejected by the NHS for what ever reason. No evidence, just our feelings, as the buying and selling of organs is illegal in this country.

Now, for celebs to call Alcoholism a "Disease", is a way of blaming someone/thing else for their addiction.

It is not their fault, that they have this F***ing Fantastic Lifestyle and the only way they can cope with it all is to go on the lash every night, or snort sh*te, or shag anything with two legs. Get a reality check.

It's an addiction. Pure and simple, away of escaping from a place you do not want to be in.

To compare with Cancer is sick. The Majority of cancers you get are just bad luck. Some are lifestyles, and these days I find it unbelievable that cigarettes, sunbeds etc. are legal.

If you are an alcoholic the answer is simple STOP! It may be hard, but you have a choice.

If you have cancer, I wish you the best, and prey that you can be cured.

I do not think he got a "good" liver.

I remember when he got his chance, and we discussed it in work. We felt as he was private, he payed for the liver, and that liver would have been rejected by the NHS for what ever reason. No evidence, just our feelings, as the buying and selling of organs is illegal in this country.

Now, for celebs to call Alcoholism a "Disease", is a way of blaming someone/thing else for their addiction.

It is not their fault, that they have this F***ing Fantastic Lifestyle and the only way they can cope with it all is to go on the lash every night, or snort sh*te, or shag anything with two legs. Get a reality check.

It's an addiction. Pure and simple, away of escaping from a place you do not want to be in.

To compare with Cancer is sick. The Majority of cancers you get are just bad luck. Some are lifestyles, and these days I find it unbelievable that cigarettes, sunbeds etc. are legal.

If you are an alcoholic the answer is simple STOP! It may be hard, but you have a choice.

If you have cancer, I wish you the best, and prey that you can be cured.

Most sensible answer i have seen

It is not their fault, that they have this F***ing Fantastic Lifestyle and the only way they can cope with it all is to go on the lash every night, or snort sh*te, or shag anything with two legs. Get a reality check.

Come on Puppy don't tell me you wouldnt do the same, fook me if I had their money from a young age I'd have died like River Phoenix in my early 20's of aids or something as I would never have slept with the same woman twice.

Come on Puppy don't tell me you wouldnt do the same, fook me if I had their money from a young age I'd have died like River Phoenix in my early 20's of aids or something as I would never have slept with the same woman twice.

I think Charlie (what an appropriate name) Sheen is an exception to the rule. But I hope I would not have been that free and easy.

I think Charlie (what an appropriate name) Sheen is an exception to the rule. But I hope I would not have been that free and easy.

Wowsers I would, can you imagine what it must be like to have beautiful women throwing themselves at you everyday ?

I'm would not be that good with that sort of temptation to pass up on the opportunity.