Alcoholism, a disease or a choice?

Question

What do you think? What is the basis of your conclusion? Did you know it can also be inherited?

wow, I'm quite amazed at the answers. I guess you've never experienced an alcoholic.

you choose to drink, but when you call yourself an alcoholic, it has passed the stage where you hold the control of the habit. Alcoholism is a disease, drinking is the choice.

Mooney, ever heard of a eating disorder? yeah...

Answer 1

Alcoholism is a choice and it is also inherited e.g. i know of a family in nigeria where all the men and women get addicted to alcohol and a particular tribe, if they were asked you are from where and u mentioned that particular states in Nigeria, people will know fully well that there are no two ways about it, he / she must be dwelling on alcohol

Answer 2

Alcoholism is both a disease and a choice. You can come from a long line of alcoholics but choose to never take a drink in your life. If you never drink you have made the choice to never become or even take the chance you might be an alcoholic. People can come from a long line of non-alcoholics and still be addicted and abuse the substance from there first drink.

I am a recovering alcoholic. I made the choice to stop drinking and know that I can never drink again. It would only lead to a relapse. I didn't drink much , but it doesn't take much to make me a complete jerk. I have an easier time controlling it than most alcoholics that I have heard of , but that doesn't make me any less an alcoholic. Just because I was able to stop without help means nothing.

I guess most of this post is off the subject of what you wanted. I am sorry for that.

Answer 3

Well... I don't think anyone wanted to grow up to be an alcoholic, so I have a hard time with concluding that its anybody's choice. Its definately a choice to start drinking in the first place. But alcoholism is basically an addiction. And just because being an alcoholic is not really a choice doesn't mean you can't choose to NOT drink at all.

I think of alcoholism as a form of negative reinforcement. Basically that is the term for when something takes away a negative feeling. So, maybe you have a hard day at work, you come home and have a drink, suddenly all that stress melts away. In this case, drinking the alcohol is a form of negative reinforcement. Your body begins to associate drinking with the negation of feeling stress.

Here is where this influences alcoholism. If you drink too much and stop, your body starts to feel really crapy. But as soon as you start drinking again, you start to feel better. This is where true addiction begins. You begin to consume a substance because if you stop, it makes you feel horrible. So its even more negative reinforcement. You feel you have to drink all the time or else you will feel horrible.

Answer 4

A lil of both perhaps. I drank a ton before the age of 21 and then was pretty much an alcoholic until recently. The choice was always mine to start drinking. The disease part(possibly inherited) kicked in and made things worse. I would drink till I passed out, wake up, repeat. During various attempts at quitting the disease was also in effect, making me go back to drinking again. Eventually I kicked the habit without help of god or an a.a. program. I just 'chose' to knock it off in the end.

Answer 5

There is evidence of a genetic pre-disposition for alcoholism, and it has often been observed that the disease is often found among siblings, and seen to be passed from parent to child.

There is a point at which one might become aware that one is in the grip of alcoholism, and at that point whether to seek treatment or to continue drinking becomes a choice.

Having once stopped drinking, the alcoholic may choose to drink again. This too, obviously, is a choice.

Answer 6

I was a practicing alcoholic for years. I have read some research suggesting more than it being hereditary, but an allergy that causes the drinker to feel compelled to continue.

I drank by choice at first until I was unable to stop, I was powerless, the new research suggests a disease.

I can't answer the question with anything that couldn't be argued against. All I know is, it took several loving Christians sitting with me for days to come off the drink, and for that I am grateful. September 7 is my anniversary.

Answer 7

I think it's an addiction, and that it's somewhere between the two. Yes, it is a choice. Unlike, say, cancer, which happens even to people who live a healthy life, you make yourself ill by what you do (drinking.) But it is also an illness in that some people are much more likely to become alcoholics than others are, especially if there is a family history. So the answer remains, a bit of both.

Answer 8

is the depression that leads to suicide also a choice in peoples' books? in a culture that worships alcohol, it can't be simply called a choice to start drinking. a person's psychological state at the time he starts drinking can be such that it's not a concious choice. i don't think most alcoholics stand in front of the refigerator before that first beer and debate the benefits of milk vs. a bud.

a little compassion would go a long way around here.

Answer 9

I am sure that it is a choice. Every day you have to make a decision to drink. And yes it can be inherited. Weak, addictive personalities run in families. That doesn't imply that you can't still make the choice.

I've done my share of drinking. I just always stopped the second that I thought it would negatively effect my life. I watched several good friends go down that path and not chose to cut it off. At least one of them is in jail, last I heard. But the only thing that I have ever seen work permanently wasn't a doctor. It was the person deciding that they had enough.

Answer 10

I knew one that said one drink was too many and 100 wasn't enough. I believe it is a disease, but also a choice. You must decide to take that drink. I believe the tendency is inherited. I see this as Biblical. But if you have a child, if they never take that first drink, then they have over come it.