As many of you know I am an alanon. -----------------Sooner or later I will stop announcing that, like a disclaimer lol
I am currently taking a class called Chemical Dependency 101 and I have a term paper to write up. And I have been bouncing back and forth between topics to pick, and then I had a thought. I think I am going to focus on the fact that alcohol/addiciton is a disease.
But I also wanted to ask those of you here, what do you think is the biggest misconception about addiction? Like if you had to talk about addiciton/alcoholism to someone who knew nothing about it and you could only focus on one point, what would that be.
I think for me the thing that I get worked up about is that people think believe alcoholism is a morality issue and not a disease. But just wanted to see what you all thought.
I am not asking you to do my homework for me, lol. I am too big a codie for that, just curious is all. And maybe with some outside help I can pick a topic that my whole class isn't going to do. :)
A BIG misconception I recognize, is that people think it is easy to stop drinking. "Just put the plug in the jug".
What is often misunderstood, is that alcohol plays a GIGANTIC, all-consuming role in an alcoholic's life. The feeling of being 'altered' becomes downright 'necessary', in order for the sufferer to function. It is kind of like trying to learn to drive with one's left foot. Have you ever tried to tuck your right foot under your seat, and drive with the left foot? This is what it feels like to try and go through one's day without alcohol, at first.
Our thought patterns, including our own 'fight or flight response', seem to be controlled by drinking. The alcoholic can't handle what the senses are bringing in unless saturated and ALTERED by alcohol. Once we learn to automatically respond to life with alcohol in our system, it is difficult to respond appropriately... or even comfortably, without it. So it is not just a matter of putting down the drink. It consumes so much more that just what we are lifting to our lips. Putting down the drink means putting aside the world as we have come to know it. It is saying goodbye to the identity we have made for ourselves, in our own mind. While drinking, we tend to think we are "OK"... but when the mind sobers up, we reciognize, rather harshly, that we aren't. And even though we recognize alcohol will destroy us, we are more comfotable with what's 'familiar'.
And here's my own disclaimer... :o)
I am Joni, Recovering Alcoholic, 20 months without a drink or a drug, and AA is what brought me this far....
That is one of the best descriptions I have ever read, Joni. So often I heard "it's just willpower" and "if you were strong enough". After time, I came to believe it, too. I was weak, I didn't really want to quit or I would, etc. etc. Alchoholism as a disease didn't occur to me back then, and if it had, I doubt I would have acknowledged it. After all, I wasn't sitting on a curb drinking out of a brown bag. I could afford it, so what's the problem? Ha! Yet. I finally did wake up, not on a curb, but sitting in a phone booth, bottle in my lap, in a strange town.
Good topic, Mandy, would love to see the final project on this! hug, Wren
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"Never argue with an idiot... They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience..."
Your post has really had me thinking and thinking. But, I guess for me the worst misconception has to be that people think it's a lack of will-power or that I'm being selfish.
I have tried to explain to a very few close friends that alcoholism is a disease. When I start to talk like that I can see their eyes starting to glaze over in boredom. I was recently explaining to someone that even when I wasn't drinking I was constantly obsessing about when I would be able to get my next drink. I simply couldn't think about anything else.
I guess that to a non-alcoholic there are no words to explain our complete powerlessness over alcohol. But, I haven't really succeeded in getting somebody to understand that.
Good luck with your term paper.
Take care,
Carol
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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss
Joni- wow talk about a deeper undestanding of addiction. That was very well written.
Wren- I will send ya my finished project . I actually had a debate with someone in the class reagrding it being a will power thing (their stance) and it being a disease (my stance). For me it was so easy to accept as a disease, I embraced that concept the minute I heard it. It expained so much. I saw his desire to quit using, and his struggle to stay clean and sober. I think that is why I want to do the toipc of disease, because I am extremely passionate about it.
Carol- I am sorry that People "glaze over" when you try to explain the disease of addiction. I know that frustration all to well. I was thinking that if I did research on the topic of disease for my paper, then I will be better prepared to state my opinions based with fact.
Phil- First I am glad that my dreams have not required help from Indy. Second I am really glad that you are not arrested
Once again thanks for the input. This class is my fav so far and I plan on continuing down this path.
PS...I am of the opinion, that a lot of people, outside AA, and new to AA.. do not understand about spirituality.....
The whole program is spiritual....and as it says in step three..A God..or Higher Power...outside of ourselves..
If one wishes to have a Religious Higher Power...that is their own personal thing..noone elses..
When I first came into AA..I heard the God stuff..and walked right out the door...
Today ...I do have a Higher Power...whom I call God...and its a personal thing..
I still get people, in the streets asking me, if Im still Bible Thumping...and my reaction is..."The Bible has absolutely nothing to do with AA as a whole. Our Bible is the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous..and a simple 12 step program of recovery..."
I still cringe when I hear someone at an AA table start quoting from a Bible..especially if newcommers are there...
We are not affiliated with Religion...in any form...
-- Edited by Phil at 07:51, 2006-10-05
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"LOVE" devoid of self-gratification, is in essence, the will, to the greatest good...of another.
. I actually had a debate with someone in the class reagrding it being a will power thing (their stance) and it being a disease (my stance). For me it was so easy to accept as a disease, I embraced that concept the minute I heard it. It expained so much. I saw his desire to quit using, and his struggle to stay clean and sober. I think that is why I want to do the toipc of disease, because I am extremely passionate about it.