On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 5:46 PM, Marc Riddell michaeldavid86@comcast.net wrote:
on 9/30/08 5:33 PM, Chris Howie at cdhowie@gmail.com wrote:
Not to mention that alcoholism is an addiction and not a disease.
Chris,
That is a false and a dangerous belief. Addiction describes the behavior associated with the disease. In short: the emotions trigger the first drink, and the brain takes it from there.
Marc
on 9/30/08 6:20 PM, Chris Howie at cdhowie@gmail.com wrote:
As a theory I have no problem with the statement that alcoholism is a disease, but I have seen little evidence to confirm it. Our own article uses language more like "suggests that" and "thinks."
Obviously I don't intend to hijack this thread, but either I haven't done much research on this subject or the research I have done hasn't produced much useful data. So Occam's Razor seems pretty appropriate.
I promise, this is my final contribution to this off-topic discussion.
Chris, this is from our own Wikipedia Article on the subject:
"The Journal of the American Medical Association defines alcoholism as "a primary, chronic disease characterized by impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking." "
Marc