Alcoholism As A Disease

Many specialists today are in a debate on whether alcoholism is a disease or not. I looked up the word disease in the new American Webster dictionary. It stated that a disease is a condition ill health, or malady. Malady is defined as any disordered state or condition. Alcoholism causes illness and disorder.

Someone who is an alcoholic has a dependency on the drug alcohol. If you are dependent on alcohol, you can acquire many illnesses both physical and mental. Physical illness from alcoholism can include stomach problems, digestive problems, headaches, kidney problems, liver disease, problems with nervous system and trouble with immune system, just to name a few. Mental illness can include depression, anger, irritability, lack of concentration, and low self-esteem.

Some alcoholics believe that in order to have a good time doing something they have to be under the influence of alcohol. Therefor if they do not have alcohol then they think life sucks and is no fun. This can also limit what a person can do because you may not be able to do some things under the influence of alcohol with out getting a punishment. For instance if you wanted to go somewhere in a car and you're an alcoholic then you will be breaking the law if you are drunk driving. Some people do not know why they have to drink in order to have fun. Maybe its because their friends drink and they do not have friends who do not drink. You can ask people, why do you drink. Many answers can come from this question. Because I like to drink, because it makes me feel good and sometimes it's, I do not know.

So, let us look at the reason for alcoholism. Alcoholism usually comes from years of the use of alcohol but you can become an alcoholic at a young age. You may not be physically dependent at a young age but you can definitely become mentally dependent. Many specialists say that alcoholism is hereditary. In alcoholics anonymous, it is said that if you have an inherited alcoholic gene then you are at high risk of being an alcoholic. One sign that you might have this gene is if you have a black out while over consuming alcohol. It is said that if you black out then you are an alcoholic. A black out is a period while drinking that you can vaguely remember or not recall whatsoever. I do not believe this because there can be a time when some one drank too much for their first time experimenting with alcohol and they blacked out. That could be the first and only time the person would drink because they did not like it. They might not have known that drinking too much would make them black out.

Another reason why people drink is the influences of society. In some movies producers make it look like parties are all fun and they use humor to over come the fact that the kids are doing a bad thing. This may put an impression on a teenager that a drinking party is fun and not dangerous. In reality teenagers party a lot and usually nothing good can come from it. Things get broken; there is drunk driving, fights, unprotected sex and craziness. One thing I do not under stand is how sports have beer companies sponcer their events. You never see pro basketball players getting drunk before a game. I think this advertisement is more centered toward the fans of sports but many of those fans are kids. In addition, many beer commercials you see on television are as if they where advertising for kids. The Budweiser frogs are an example of this. Of course, kids are going to pay attention to computer animated frogs talk and crack jokes at each other. Moreover, for the adult they have the commercials where this beautiful girl is hitting on the guy because he drinks the beer she likes. What I do not understand is why alcoholics are looked down upon by society but we accept these advertisements and sponcers. For some reason people look down on the alcoholic and not the alcohol.

I think that society plays a bigger role than hereditary when it comes to the reason why we drink. If a young child is raised in an alcoholic family then it is more likely that the child will drink. One, the child has easy access to alcohol if it is in the house. The child also sees his or her parents drinking and may think its ok to drink. Parents are role models for kids at a young age. If a child has the so called "alcohol genes" and the parents do not drink it is a good chance that the child will not want to drink.

The strange thing about alcoholism being a disease is that there is not a drug that can efficiently treat it. It is not like a diabetic who takes insulin shots to keep the blood sugar level under control. The most common way to treat alcoholism is by going