Some say it is a disease. It's the only disease where all you need to do is stop putting a specific substance into your body! My father had a real disease, cancer. Boy I sure wish he could have cured his disease by going to AA meetings and simply not putting a substance into his body.
Hey Alcoholics: SIMPLY DON'T PUT THE STUFF INTO YOUR MOUTH! Don't claim you have a disease. There are plenty of people out there with REAL diseases. All the people with cancer and AIDS would love to trade diseases. The disease controversy is always guaranteed to ruffle feathers, if not cause out and out fist fights. That's because people who think it's a disease learned it as part of the dogma of 12step religion.
Mitch Hedberg used to joke: Alcoholism is the only disease where people yell at you for having it. No one would ever say, "Dammit, Otto, you have lupus!!"
The most convincing argument for alcoholism/addiction being a disease
comes from Gorski:
"If alcoholism is defined as a disease, it will be treated as a
healthcare problem. As a result, alcoholics will be assured the right to receive appropriate medical treatment for this disease. The treatment of Alcoholism will be covered by health insurance and other health care financing plans in both the public and private sectors.
The appropriate health care groups will be mobilized to support its treatment. And, most importantly, ongoing biomedical research which relates alcoholism to other diseases will be funded.
If alcoholism is not defined as a disease, we will be making the decision that it does not rightfully belong within healthcare.
Alcoholics, then, will be denied access to vital healthcare
services.
Insurance and other health care financing plans will exclude
alcoholism. Alcoholism, which is responsible for 30% of all inpatient hospital days and nearly 50% of emergency room visits, will be divorced from the medical field. As a result it will never be fully integrated into our health care system."
There it is, the ECONOMIC reason that they're called "diseases".
http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/cbook/chap6...
A little history lesson:
It is considered a disease because the AMA took a vote on it and decided it was a disease. Seriously. In 1956, it became an "illness". In 1966, it became a "disease".
What other diseases needed to be voted on??? Mainly it was voted in so that doctors would get paid by insurance companies for treatment of alcoholism.
"The disease concept strips the substance abuser of responsibility. A disease cannot be cured by force of will, therefore, adding the medical label transfers the responsibility from the abuser to others. Inevitably they become unwilling victims, and inevitably they take on that role....In retrospect then, the disease concept has effectively increased alcoholism and drug abuse. Furthermore, its only benefit has been vast monetary reward for the professionals鈥?and governmental agencies responsible for providing recovery services. Specifically, it has not offered a solution for those attempting to stop abusive alcohol and drug use."
http://www.addictioninfo.org/articles/44...
"History and science have shown us that the existence of the disease of alcoholism is pure speculation. Just saying it麓s so, doesn麓t make it true. Nevertheless, medical professionals and American culture lovingly embraced the disease concept and quickly applied it to every possible deviant behavior from alcohol abuse to compulsive lecturing. The disease concept was a panacea for many failing medical institutions adding billions to the industry and leading to a prompt evolution of pop-psychology. Research has shown that alcoholism is a choice, not a disease, and stripping alcohol abusers of their choice, by applying the disease concept, is a threat to the health of the individual."
http://www.permanent-solution.com/curren...
updated:
http://web.archive.org/web/2006011606550...
E.M. Jellinek (a man with phony credentials) teamed up with Marty Mann (AA member and PR woman) teamed up to provide studies that proved alcoholism was a disease:
"It was Jellinek鈥檚 鈥渟cientific鈥?study that opened the door for the medical communities鈥?support. E.M. Jellinek鈥檚 study was funded by the efforts of Marty Mann. And, like so many other circumstances involving Jellinek and Marty Mann, the study was bogus if not outright fraudulent.
"The surveys he based his conclusions on were from a hand picked group of alcoholics. There were 158 questionnaires handed out and 60 of them were suspiciously not included. His conclusion was based on less than 100 hand picked alcoholics chosen by Marty Mann.
"Mrs. Mann, of course, had a personal agenda to remove the stigma about the homeless and dirty alcoholic or 鈥渂owery drunk鈥?in order to gain financial support from the wealthy. By removing the stigma, the problem becomes one of the general population, which would then include the wealthy.
"The first step was Jellinek publishing his findings in his book "The Stages of Alcoholism.鈥?Later, E.M. Jellinek was asked by Yale University to refute his own findings. He complied. E.M. Jellinek鈥檚 Stages of Alcoholism did not stand up to scientific scrutiny."
(again) http://www.addictioninfo.org/articles/44... Alcoholism is different from just drinking - it's a disorder.
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