[lit-ideas] Re: Is alcoholism a disease or a life-style choice?

One point. Some drugs (e.g.) are more addictive than others.  Some
benzodiazepines (to be more specific) are more addictve than others. albeit
prescribing practices and directions for use also play a part.

Judy Evans

-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Donal McEvoy
Sent: 28 March 2004 08:14
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Is alcoholism a disease or a life-style choice?


Thank you and to 'phatic' [are you Greek with a weight problem? if so, Oprah
has the perfect thing]: both posts were interesting. It is perhaps no
surprise that where I disagree is perhaps that I think this topic interests
me more than bothers me.

For example, a handle on so-called 'addictive behaviours' like alcoholism
might provide interesting insights into other behaviours less addictive [eg.
voting for Bush].


--- BOROWIK  LUCIENE <luborowik@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >
>
> > my understanding was that there is no evidence that alcoholics [itself a
> > loaded term] have any greater psychopathology than the average *once
they
> > stop drinking*. This indicates the causal arrow points the other way:
> > excessive drinking causes psychopathology.
>
> --------------
> Many physicians are prone to simply quote statistics as evidences.
> Surprisingly, even these physicians know that statistics are not
evidences;
> methods can vary, and results can be used to justify bias, etc. Of course
> physicians have their own opinion on the issue, but quoting statistics is
> just a simple way to keep us on a safe ground.

I agree except for the point "statistics are not evidences": they are, and
they can be highly significant, though they need to be handled with care. Of
course, they can be abused so they are little more than damned lies. But
what
we want is them to be better used than this.

I have had a number of interesting conversations with psychiatrists on this
issue [one while he was intermittently snoking coke; but I wasn't offended -
he did offer me some]. Er...lest you get the wrong idea, these were
'ordinary' conversations.

Re statistics one told me: 'They never tell you about the ten percent'.

What?

'There's always about ten percent in any study of this kind that buck the
trend'.

What's the significance of that?

Lighting his umpteenth cigarette and downing his pint, he whispered: 'I
believe I am in the ten percent'.

Donal










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