Alcoholism

[Eilonnwy]

Alcoholism is not a disease. It's a myth propagated by the people who founded AA. I once did an extensive writeup about why Alcoholism is not a disease, but it went bye bye when I deleted my blog, unfortunately. In any case, there is absolutely no evidence for a disease. My mother constantly tells me it's a disease, listing vague symptoms to justify her claim. And these vague symptoms are along the lines of "It tries to kill you, affects your family life," and some other nonsense. I don't remember the exact words, but that's the gist of it. These vague, non medical symptoms do NOT a disease make. It's an addiction, and in many cases a symptom of mental illness and depression.

It is also not genetic, it's hereditary. What I mean is that there is no biological agent that passes on alcoholism from a parent to a child, which would be genetics. However, Alcoholism does run through families, therefor it does of a hereditary element. It is a well known fact that psychologically we go to what we know. How often do we see a child who was abused become an abuser himself? Alcoholic homes are tumultuous and will always leave a scar on the children. It's not surprising that some will then turn to drinking themselves. Furthermore, there are such things as addictive personalities, and if they are inherited, then that's another reason a child can become an alcoholic. But it's still not genetic, there's no specific genetic trait within biology that has bee found to transfer alcoholism from parent to child.

I have lived with alcoholism all my life. My mother has been sober since 2002 and never touched a drop sense. My father is another story, he'll be sober for a while and then fall off the wagon. AA works for my mother, not so much for my father. My sister believed she was an alcoholic, but she then realized she was just in a bad spot and she now drinks without any alcoholic problems. My uncle died of alcoholism last year when he drank his way to liver sorosis. There other members of my family, cousins, and an aunt, where alcoholism has been a problem. It's a very personal issue to me, but the facts are simple. There's no evidence that supports alcoholism is a disease.

There are consistent misconceptions about how to deal with alcoholism. AA has a 5% success rate. That is the SAME rate of spontaneous remission in alcoholism. Spontaneous remission refers to people who just stop without any help. AA is no better than people who decide to quit on their own, yet people constantly insist AA is the way, that you need to give yourself up to God to get help. I hate AA. It has a monopoly on helping Alcoholics when it has done nothing to significantly improve the rate of people quitting. I wish people would stop putting so much stock in a religion that has no evidence to back its claims and better medical research into treating alcoholism based on what it really is.