Is alcoholism and addiction a disease?

[Riders]

I go to meetings for my addiction on the phone. I go 4 to 7 times a week depending on how I feel.

Sometimes the Christian church says addiction is a sin you need to repent for it. Some in the church have a Christianized version of the 12 Steps, they accept the idea of being powerless over their addiction but they also believe they can get well, and eventually start calling themselves a recovered alcoholic.

They might stop going to meetings after a while.

The secular AA and other 12 step programs want you to do the first 3 steps we admitted we were powerless over alcohol that our lives had become unmanageable. Then they stay long term 5 20 15 years or more in the programs saying they will never be cured.

But my uncle quit going to meetings about after 10 years in the program he never went back to drinking.

My Mom stayed in 34 years till she died. So is it a bad thing for people to stay in AA and other 12 steps to stay in recovery forever without feeling like they have recovered as the religious 12 Step groups say?

AA teaches its a disease that can not be cured we can only learn to live with it. So what does disease it mean the definition of disease where addictions are concerned?


I do not agree with the Christianized AA because I am not Christian. So should the Christian believe alcoholism is something you can conquer and get the victory over; or should we believe its a dangerous disease that we never get rid of and learn to live with it?

What about everyone else in other religions, is it a disease, a sin or something you need to be treated for the rest of your life?

So I see things differently than others. On the one hand I am in a secular program and believe I am in recovery, but I do not know that I will be there for 10 years. Id like to think after 5 years I could quit.

For me, my initial reaction is this. I am not Christian so I do go along with the disease theory.

However, I am picky who I hang with. I think there are alt of AAers and other 12 Steppers, who get physically clean but not spiritually clean.

So for instance 40 year old comes to get clean get sober has a few years of sobriety but still talks too much about his old drinking days, he still sleeps around with women, he still smokes, he still has no job and is very dependant on AA for his socializing and has a dependency on AA.

In order for me to be friends with one, I don't want to hang out with anyone who is not a winner, to me if I am really in the program there should differences in my life and spiritual life too.

I should be able to see differences in people if you're a dry alcoholic, physically sober but the same old person that's a toxic program. The reason that has something to do with the original question is addiction a disease
is because some of us addicts who believe we will bever recovery and have the disease all our lives, they use this as an excuse to not lead a spiritual life, physically sober not spiritually sober.

So should we treat as a disease or with medicine, some sort of medical program or religious ideas about sin?

 

[SomeRandom]

Define disease first?
People with addictive personalities might never truly be “cured” of an addiction, I suppose.
Disease is perhaps a handy metaphor to explain that to people. But I don’t know how actual medical professionals would feel about that.

Treatment to addiction should be based on science and reason.
There are drug addicts that are given certain types of drugs to help them give up the habit. There are therapy sessions available for others.
I’m not entirely sure how AA works, other than it being some kind of support group. Which I suppose is an agreed upon method of treatment. But maybe it needs to be evaluated and assessed to see it can improve its methods.
But I’m not a mental health professional so I dunno

 

[dianaiad]

Whatever it is that allows one to become addicted is physical, mostly, and is always there. It doesn't matter, IMO, whether one is addicted to a drug or to alcohol...and perhaps to gambling (not sure about that, but probably). The propensity to become addicted will ALWAYS be there. All you can do is 'get over' the addiction to that chemical that got you in trouble. Once you've done that, you will always need to be 'on guard' against becoming addicted to something ELSE (again, IMO) because the reason for the addiction is not, at base, the thing to which you are addicted

(general 'you,' btw, because English doesn't have a plural 'you,' and using 'one' gets pretentiously old)

So...the propensity to become addicted seems to run in my family. Dad was addicted to alcohol and to cigarettes, my brother to meth and other drugs, and I've got lots of cousins who have problems. It's almost a given; if one of us starts drinking anything...we will become alcoholic. Smokers find it almost impossible to quit. No such thing as 'try it once' street drugs and for us, marijuana really IS an 'entry level addictive substance." So we raise our kids with that caution in mind.

And those of us who have gone through the process STAY IN AA or GA or whatever, period, because we understand that for us, it's not about 'not drinking.' It's about addiction to anything.

Now my Dad doesn't go to AA any more himself, but then he hasn't had a drink in 70 years. He figures that with everything else, he's safe there. He did put 'addictive personality' in his medical records, though, so that docs who want to prescribe him stuff monitor him more carefully.

 

[Riders]

It doesn't work for me anymore. It will if I get involved fully with A meditation or Buddha Temple religious service fully but by itself, the 12 Step programs are not working for me anymore. But I am hoping that by adding a religious service with it I will get much more out of it.

But the talk about spirituality in AA, the spiritual side higher power of my choice, sometimes it feels like it's not enough, its AA, a recovery addiction program that, is a part of the recovery program it's not my own spiritual ideas, I need to find God on my own, not through the program.

I am sorry if this offends, but it only applies to me, in other words, this is my personal experience, I am starting to see more darkness in the program then the light of my higher power. It's like without religious expression and my own faith I focus more on the negative, what did I do in my past, the addiction, the problem instead of the solution.

It's just not going to work for me unless I really start having a religious practice outside of AA. I may even incorporate Buddha's book, there's on about Buddha beliefs and the 12 Steps so. I am getting it and incorporating it into my 12 Step program.