I believe that almost all addictions are diseases.I also think that they are somewhat genetic.Most alcholics/drug addicts that I've known have had some kind of family history of addiction.My best friend is a doctor and we have had this discussion many times. I also think the potential to become an addict is in everyone.Then there are those out there that can't do anything in moderation.

I remember in my Psychology class (years ago) that having an alcoholic parent meant you are 4 times more likely to be alcoholic.

I always thought that seemed somewhat arbitrary. 4 times? why not 2 times? or 8 times? sounded like BS But hey aren't psychologists full of it?

Like I said in my other post and others said before me,it's a disease.My mother was an alcholic and we attended a lot of AA/Alanon meetings,I remember alcholism being referred to as a disease.High blood pressure,heart disease,respitory problems,and so on are all diseases and are all proven to be affected by genetics.That being said I think they were right in your Psych classes,how they determine the risk numbers are beyond me though.

My grandfather on my moms side was an alcoholic, although since then it hasn't shown up in the family. Still I'm careful.

It seems like a pretty simple statistical analysis; just ask a bunch of alcoholics about their parents and crunch some numbers.

I always thought this was a powerful song and video about alcoholism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRv0jVZtdbY

On a much lighter note. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjVfc8-Y7sQ

Someone should tell the sax player he's white. :D

Alcoholism is addiction to the chemical ethyl alcohol. Addiction is a psychiatric disease, that's why people are sent to treatment centers and to hospitals - where would you suggest we send them? It leads to death as surely as small pox. If you had read what I actually posted, the symptoms are psychopathic - alcoholics have distinct breaks with reality that do not occur in "the norm" of individuals, and while the rest of the world sees the individual's drinking problem for what it is, the alcoholic has a mental illness which manifests itself in he not seeing what is plain to those around him - that he has lost control of himself in regards to the use of alcohol. What exactly do you think it is, a moral failing of some sort? A weakness of character? I suggest you volunteer your time somewhere working with them, you will find out soon enough that alcoholics are very, very, sick people.

It is an area of intense debate. I tend to side with those who think it just looks genetic, because a parent usually has it - when it just might be that the parent is actually passing on a form of post-traumatic stress disorder and dysfunctional fatalism to his/her children by psychologically abusing them, or perhaps by changing their mental frame of reference in some other way. Alcoholics tend to all be "oh what's the use" people, it is a profound commonality. It is as if on some level convinced that life isn't really worth living. But I am still open to being proved wrong, and it turns out to be genetic, at least we could get some closure on all the moralizing over the issue. Much of the work being done on cocaine and heroin addiction is pointed to a possible genetic pre-disposition to it caused by the pleasure neurons in the brain being wired different from "the norm".

It is no accident that most of those who attain a B.A. in psych and never go into graduate work, become extremely successful car salesman.

Like I said, they are the white mice of the psych business, they have been analyzed a million different ways in a million different grad papers. We know that they have a much, much higher degree of anxiety than the norm. We know that they tend to have a much more negative view of the world, especially of their fellow man, and that they are much more likely to commit suicide and homicide than average. They also tend to have slighter higher IQ's as a whole, and that many of them suffer from blood sugar disorders, especially hypoglycemia. Contrary to most stereo-types, they are not mostly bums under a bridge, they actually are more likely to be the opposite - hard working stiffs, until they enter Stage III alcoholism, which is essentially a total loss of control over alcohol - they essentially lose the ability to be sober. At that point, they began to exhibit the lifestyles most of us associate with alcoholics- homelessness, severe brain damage ("wet brain") and various necrotic liver diseases. It's a $hitty way to die.

Your last sentence in the above post is what I was trying to put into words when I said that everyone has the potential.

Bill Wilson, the founder of AA felt that way. He said all people are alcoholics, it's just a matter of degree, and that at some point any person just drinks themselves over some imaginary line. I myself don't agree, because it occurs as such a distinct syndrome ( a group of symptoms that always seem to occur together - which points to some specific cause) but research in this area is still uncertain.

I second that motion. :D