An answer to the debate about whether alcoholism is a disease?

[nancy]

Hey all

We have had so many debates and arguments here over whether alcholism is a disease.

I thought it was interesting to see what the National Instiute on Alchol and Alcohol Abuse thinks about it. They are using the term alcohol use disorder and there are many stages. The diagnosis is based on a number of factors and you can have a mild problem or be functional or have a chronic problem based on how you fit into the criteria. Seems like what society views as alcoholism is a chronic severe type of problem but there are other lesser forms of dependence. Also interesting, only about one quarter of people in the community use treatment or AA to recover from alcohol use disorder. And, the relapse rates are low for those who abstain.

Here is a link to a video and slides:

https://webmeeting.nih.gov/p27471408/

PS based on the critieria, everyone here has alcohol use disorder but some of us have mild to moderate conditions.

[Prest4time]

An answer to the debate about whether alcoholism is a disease?

Nancy, thanks!

[Sunbeam]

An answer to the debate about whether alcoholism is a disease?

Nancy,
Thank you so much for posting this. It is long, but I listened while doing other things on the computer. I will post this link in the Toolbox thread. It is a great summary regarding current thinking on alcohol use and abuse.

[nancy]

An answer to the debate about whether alcoholism is a disease?

Yeah, you are right Sunbeam. It's long. Too bad it's not written down instead of in a video.

I don't think I ever even heard the term alcohol use disorder. That seems to be what it is, it's a behavioral disorder. And that's more objective than trying to figure out if someone has a mysterious disease that might be genetic. All you do is look at the number of drinks per day/week and the number of consequences, psychological, legal etc.

It sounds like alcoholism in the community is different from what they see in treatment centers and that's good for us to know too as it seems like the relapse rate is actually low in the community.

So yes, glad you found it useful too.