It is not a choice. Please read the articles I posted. Addiction is not a choice, otherwise it would be called a hobby.
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“Accountability partnerships” sound creepily close to those programs that supposedly monitor and share your web browsing habits with some other individual, and you hold one another ‘accountable’ so you don’t look at porn.
They seem to be the domain of highly conservative religious folks who have all sorts of ideas about what is or isn’t ‘indecent.’ And, as has been demonstrated over and over and over, the ones who crow the loudest about how awful it all is are always the biggest hypocrites when they think no one else is looking.
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That is not logic.
Alcoholism is an illness.
Diabetes is an illness.
Bipolar is an illness.
Choices are involved.
Alcoholism, diabetes, or bipolar are all illnesses even though decision making and choices are involved, and some choices may make the outcomes worse.
Many illnesses develop as a result of predisposition, genetics, bad luck, other risk factors, and personal choices coming together
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(post deleted by author)
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I know there’s thread drift and all, but I’m kinda baffled how we ended up discussing alcoholism. AFAIK, this did not happen in any other recent threads about reducing alcohol intake voluntarily.
The article is not about alcoholics. It is also not about alcoholism. It is like similar articles posted here about some folks trying to make healthier choices, and I would really love to get back to the topic at hand before this thread gets locked.
Cheers!
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This displays not only an astounding degree of callousness, but also ignorance. There is TONS of literature on genetic and epigenetic factors that contribute to addiction. Both Nature AND Nurture contribute heavily to the likelihood someone will fall into addiction. Neither of which are in an individuals control.
Of course there is a component of free will. It’s a well worn trope “you have to want to get help.” But whether you need that help in the first place is much less a deliberate choice than you seem to think.
No one DECIDES to become an alcoholic gambling addict or whatever.
Do better.
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You are 100% wrong, whether you can be convinced of that or not.
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Sunshine’s first husband was a drunk. He chose to drink.
One day he stopped drinking and stayed sober for 3 years. Then he went back to drinking.
He could have chosen not to drink for 5 years or 10 years or never again. No one knows why 3 years was the magic number for him, but it was.
Anecdotes ≠ data. Please, read up on the topic.
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individual experience != universal truth.
I’m astonished this needs to be repeated.
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It is data, just like your two friends are data.
One stayed sober, one did not.
So, you still haven’t reread my comment. The one NOT drinking had been to rehab already, the one who did had NOT.
And you haven’t read the articles I shared 
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And THAT right there makes your supposition that alcoholism is a choice incorrect. You don’t know WHY her ex went back to drinking.
As has been said - once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.
Once in recovery, ALWAYS in recovery.
Some are just lucky enough to remain in recovery vs. having something turn them back to drinking. Depression, losing their job, death of a child or family member…so many reasons can cause someone to lapse while in recovery.
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Personal choices (ie; do I drink today or don’t I?) are always a part of living. And, unfortunately, those choices are sometimes made harder by genetic or acquired medical issues. As others have stated, alcoholism is a disease by definition. However, not all alcohol abuse (even serious abuse) is alcoholism and to frame the issue as choice vs disease is incorrect. One can have the disease and choose to not drink & one can be a problem drinker without the disease. The issue of alcohol abuse &/or addiction is always about getting the person to make better choices day by day, hour by hour, whether their body craves it because of addiction, habit or escapism. No need to split hairs - if drinking is causing problems physiologically, mentally or behaviorally, it’s time to consider making better choices & not debate definitions. Yes, no matter how addicted one is to alcohol, one can choose to take the next drink or not. However, addiction requires a big increase in resources to do so (medical detox with supports) vs just not picking up the drink, as addiction withdrawal is more than “just” gritting your teeth and plowing through.
(as an aside, if anyone’s interested in my confidence in expressing my opinion on this, its because I spent over 30 years working with dually diagnosed mentally ill/substance abusing people as a licensed professional).
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Thank you for chiming in and sharing your experience. Like all addictions, how an addict deals with or overcomes it depends on so many different factors.
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You’re not wrong!
Addiction is addiction…just different substances. Dieting like rehab can go in cycles….rinse, repeat, start again. It’s the nature of the beast. The idea that an addict (food or alcohol) can just stop drinking or stop eating to lose weight is a stretch. If it were as simple as just stopping, people would do it all the time…and there would not be a billion dollar rehab industry or a multi-billion dollars weight loss and diet industry…or a rampant obesity epidemic.
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I don’t know if this is a fair comparison, but I lived next door to a Heroin user. For the record, I did feed him when he was hungry, but never gave him any money.
One day we were talking and I asked him why he used… He said he liked it.
I asked him if he had ever been clean, yes… 3 times (two rehab stints paid for by his parents) and the other time while he was in prison for dealing heroin. All three times he went back to using, because (in his words) “HE LIKED IT” He told me he liked the way he felt on heroin, he didn’t say he was addicted – just that he liked it. He preferred the feeling of being high to not being high.
I did feel he was being honest with me and really had no reason to lie to me.
No… Sunshine’s breast cancer was an illness. She didn’t chose to get it, nor could she wake up and not have it. She could make no choice in her day (by her actions), not to have cancer.
A drunk makes a conscious choice to break the seal, open that bottle or can and ingest the product.
CAN. WE. PLEASE. TALK. ABOUT. THE. ARTICLE.
Thank you.
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