Alcoholism As a Disease
Many people have a problem when thinking of alcoholism as a disease because it simply doesn’t seem like one. It doesn’t look a disease; nor does it sound, smell, or act like a disease. To cap it all, it regularly denies it exists and refuses to accept treatment.
Alcoholism has been recognized by professional medical organizations for many years as a major, constant, progressive and at times deadly disease. The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence offers a detailed and complete definition of alcoholism, but perhaps the simplest way to describe it is “a mental obsession that causes a physical compulsion to drink.”
What is a mental obsession? Have you ever had a song playing continuously in your head? It might be a song from the radio or a commercial you heard on television, but it keeps on playing … and playing and playing.
Mental Obsession Come on; admit that you remember what it was like. That stupid melody kept repeating in your head no matter what you did. You probably tried to listen to another tune, sing another song, or turn on the radio; however, the one in your head just kept on playing. We have all been there. Something was happening in your mind that you didn’t consciously put there and no matter how hard you tried you couldn’t get it out!
That is an example of a simple mental obsession — a thought process over which you have no control. Such is the nature of the disease of alcoholism. When the drinking “song” starts playing in the mind of an alcoholic, he is powerless. He didn’t put the song there and the only way to get it to stop is to take another drink.
The problem is the alcoholic’s mental obsession with alcohol is much more subtle than a song playing in his mind. In fact, he may not even know it’s there. All he knows is he suddenly has an urge to take a drink — a physical compulsion to drink.
Progressive Disease What aggravates the problem is the progressive nature of the disease. In the early stages of the “mental obsession” having one or two drinks may be all that is needed to get the “song” to stop. Soon it will take six or seven drinks and then later possibly ten or twelve. It comes to a point when the only time the song stops is when he passes out.
The progression of the disease is so slow that even the alcoholic himself can, at times, fail to recognize the point at which he loses control and alcohol takes over his life.
No wonder denial is an almost universal symptom of the disease. For those who have come to the realization that they do have a problem, help may be as close as the white pages of the telephone directory. But for those who need help and do not want it, intervention may be the only alternative.
