[lit-ideas] Re: Is alcoholism a disease or a life-style choice?
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 10:14:18 +0000 (GMT)
>
> I've heard it said that an alcoholic is an egotist with low self-esteem,
> who
> hides the conflict by intoxication.
A lot of people seem to me to fit the bill of egotists with low self-esteem
(of course this could be just 'projection' on my part). Getting intoxicated
can surely cause grandiose or egotistic behaviour and cause low self-esteem:
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.
>Another take is that compulsive
> drinking
> is a sign of a low-level spiritual quest--hindered by fear of the
> implications
> of that spiritual quest.
Again many people are on some low-level spiritual quest [although some prefer
a double]. This 'take' is redolent of the AA model of alcoholism as a
spiritual disease.
Unfortunately because of AA's anonymity policy, afaik this model and its
alternatives have not been tested properly on AA memberships - and there are
many funding and control issues that make large-scale research into drinking
problems outside of organisations like AA very difficult.
As to the exact combination of genetics/environment at work, I do not know of
a definitive answer to this re alcoholism or more generally for that matter.
If others have one I am all ears.
What is true is that excessive alcohol consumption produces tolerance
[leading to needing more to get the same 'fix'] and withdrawal [creating
craving for more alcohol]. This unavoidable physiological process is a major
part of alcohol problems it seems to me, whatever psychological analysis
might also be offered.
Of course in the West we drank all the time until we got clean water. Those
were the days, my friend.
> On the other hand, there's something good in what Teemu says. The disease
> model of addiction too often serves as a form of social control.
Yes, it has its dangers as well as advantages: for example while it may work
by causing a fear that without total abstinence one is doomed, if you fall
off the wagon you might wrongly think you are doomed.
Donal
London
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