ocean dragged my alcoholic neighbor to AA

i didn't say it would be proven, just that it would have more credibility.

i give the AA folks some credit for being more reliable than the average alcoholic not in recovery

 

I don't know very many people in AA but the ones I do know are there by court order and still party all the time.

 

Big sticking point for me about AA is they have that religious thing going on...good luck if you happen to be an alcoholic atheist.

 

they should have triple A, atheist alcoholics anonymous :2thumbsup:

 

well, I would credit the portion that are there voluntarily and actually in recovery with being more reliable.

assuming that at least some of the folks are not there by court order, they'd still bring up the average.

that'd be funny if everyone at an AA meeting was there by court order, and they just had a keg party

 

I dated a woman recently who attends AA meetings. It was all she ever talked about. She was not religious, though, but there does seem to be this evangelical nature to people who regularly attend these meetings.

Personally, I don't really believe there is any such thing as alcoholism the way it's portrayed as a lifelong disease. I say that's bullshit.

 

Here you need be clean for one year, have a sponsor before you can lead a meeting.
Sometimes storytelling goes around a room and you can speak for a few. That dont mean leading the meeting. Im sure it can happen tho.

 

Uhh ohh, the first sign is denial...

 

Because any addiction to do with dopamine receptors is counter intuative

With guys like this, you only notice it once they are full blown alcoholics and doing stupid stuff, but the "cause" is having a higher tolerance than most early on.

Back when he was 18 or whenever, starting out, everyone else more likely to get more drunk and obvious about it and have instant negative consequences; throwing up, paying for it the next morning, that is they are trained off it before they get a chance to get physically dependant on it.

But it didnt effect him as much, so more likely for him to drink everyday, drink more to get drunk, over a longer period of time, more chance of building up a physical dependance. Early on no one else really noticed him going through half a case of beer a day cos he wasnt acting like a dickhead or ever really that drunk early on, its not till a decade later and he is drinking scotch straight out of the bottle anyone else notices


Its not really the binge drinking ones you see making idiots of themselves that turn into alcoholics, unless they are binge drinking 3 nights a week for a decade. Its just all the media campaigns about drink driving or just that it looks obnoxious that makes people think that.

Plus the difference between alcohol and other drugs is it affects every cell of the body

The "cause" is higher than average initial resistance to the effects of the substance. And always realitive to everyone else, if everyone was an alcoholic it would never be called a disease. And only because it has obnoxious behavioural effects, they are no nicotine-oholics, never any court enforced sessions for cigarette smoking

 

I'll drink to that!

 

Really?

I've known enough alcoholics in my life to know alcoholism is very real. I dont know if its a disease but it is an addiction and even when the physical addiction is broken the psychological addiction can certainly last a life time.

I think scientists have linked alcoholism to a certain gene which is why it is classified as a disease. I know it runs rampant amongst the men in my family

 

good post. back in my fastfood days, a lot of my coworkers were in rehab. one woman in paticular was so annoyingly preachy about it, we sand Amy Winehouse's Rehab whenever she came to work.
yeah, how does one define alcoholism? what is a functioning alcoholic? if they're functioning, where's the disease? and is self medicating bad? what about coffee or chamomile, isn't that self medicating?

 

at this meeting they have a microphone they pass around.

 

Consuming alcohol in large amounts affects so much in your body, so yes, it is a disease.

Anyways, I feel very uncomfortable around alcoholics, and drunk people in general.
Luckily, it's not an issue in my family and among my friends.

 

It really is one of the most deleterious drugs IMHO. I see so much of it where I live. Generations of hard-core alcoholics. Not even mentioning the devastation it's had on the Native tribal people, my state competes for highest consumption per capita with only one other state, North Dakota. And the only reason they have the highest right now is because all our guys are in ND working in the Bakken oil fields! lol

I'm fortunate most of my friends and family don't drink, but otherwise, it's so prevalent around here I have to have to exercise a certain amount of tolerance or I wouldn't have a social life. lulzy

 

Alcohol isn't a medicine. It wreaks havoc on your body. It may numb things temporarily but you feel feel 20x worse the next day.

As far as functioning alcoholics, I know one. He gets up every day for work, pays his bills on time, doesn't let alcohol interfere with his daily responsibilities. He's 40 and I guarantee he will be dead by the time he is 50 if not before. He already has gout and you can see signs his body isn't handling alcohol as well anymore...there is a lot of bloat in his face, his skin looks horrible, etc. its really sad.

 

I can't even remember the last time I drank that much. My friends don't take it that far either. Not necessary for a good time.

 

Yeah I was talking more about about alcoholics who can't stop after a couple of drinks.

I get a hangover from 2 beers lol, I can't really handle alcohol anymore. I love a good beer but I usually have one and call it a day

 

Same here...I drank like a longshorman when I was a teen, over the years I just got to where I didn't like the buzz of alcohol. Now I can drink one beer and feel it. I might enjoy the buzz briefly, but beer always gives me a headache. 2 beers and I suffer in the morning.

I've witness many daily drinkers that seem to have aged prematurely.

 

Alcoholism has an insidious nature. Although often not noticed in the younger years, over time it gradually damages the liver and kidneys, among other things. Many times it isn't detected until much of the liver has already been destroyed by scarring. Then it is usually too late to heal the damage.

Researchers have noticed a pattern with the damage mechanism of alcoholism. It has a way of depleting nutrients (vitamin B in particular) and the electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium that are needed for a healthy heart, liver, kidneys, brain, and bones. The depletion of magnesium is an explanation for the more immediately noticeable problems such as sleep disorders and agitation that often afflict chronic drinkers, as magnesium deficiency is associated with those problems.

http://vitanetonline.com/forums/3/Thread/2010

http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/content/35/6/612.full