From Moral Failing to Disease

Fashions change in nearly everything - including the popular and medical opinions about alcoholism. A half-century ago, most people (including medical professionals as well as alcoholics themselves) believed that alcoholism was a question of free will: People became alcoholics because they chose to drink and did not have the moral (or emotional or psychological) ability to stop drinking. Over the past several decades, ideas about the root causes of alcoholism changed substantially as the pendulum swung from one extreme (i.e. alcoholism is a moral weakness) to the other (alcoholism is a disease caused by a genetic predisposition). In the past decade, the pendulum has begun swinging back slightly so that now most medical and social-work professionals view alcoholism as a learned behavior - although there is also although there is little doubt most alcoholics have some element of genetic predisposition for the condition. This paper explores the phenomenon of alcoholism as we understand it at this point, as a condition that is partly learned (i.e. the result of freely engaged in choices) and partly genetic.

The question of whether alcoholism is an acquired behavior or a genetic or a combination of the two might not seem to be terribly important either to the alcoholic who is suffering or to her or his family and friends who suffer as well. But in fact it is extremely important in terms of how one treats the condition - and also in how the conditio

Related Essays

Nature or Nurture and Alcoholism .... very long ago, alcoholism was considered to be a moral failing. .... posited alcoholism as a form of moral weakness, we .... alcoholism should be is as a disease that is .... (1878 8 )

Controversy Over Prozac Useage .... their own lives. According to Breggin (1994), "Depression, in reality, is neither a disease nor a moral failing. It is a psychological .... (2559 10 )

Causes and Treatment for Alcoholism .... the criticisms of this kind of treatment, noting that alcoholism -- although labeled a disease -- actually continues to be considered a moral failing by much .... (2566 10 )

Cultural/Ethnic Viewpoint of Alcoholism Among the Irish .... Only in the 1970s, Cockburn says, did the pattern begin to change, as alcoholism was labeled a disease rather than a moral failing. .... (2860 11 )

Growth and development Milestones .... and exercise plan and to provide moral support to .... primary disease of the heart muscle itself, called cardiomyopathy .... The "failing" heart keeps working but not as .... (1302 5 )

be determined (LeMarquand etal., 1999). Mehrabian (2001) as well as a number of other researchers have found that alcoholism is far more likely to occur in individuals that have key psychological "comorbidities" or accompanying conditions such as depression: "Review of the relevant literature indicates a substantial positive relation between depression and alcohol abuse or dependence." It should be noted that there is a discrepancy between researchers' view of the genetic component of alcoholism and that of those who treat the condition (which is usually now referred to as a disease). The following statement represents the beliefs of what might be called the "recovery community": Alcoholism is nothing to be shamed of because it is genetic. Forty percent of alcoholism is caused by genetic factors and sixty percent by factors we don't understand. If we take identical twins and split them at birth and raise one in Wyoming and one in Ethiopia, if one twin becomes an alcoholic, there is a 40% chance that the other twin will become an alcoholic. Alcoholism runs in families. If you have an alcohol problem it is very likely that other members of your family are addicted (http://www.alcoholismtreatment.org/). Clearly there are

Category: Psychology - F