5 Alcoholism Myths
These myths would be of interest to anyone
involved with alcoholism – wives, partners, parents, children, adult children
(co-dependents) and of course the alcoholic.
Myth 1: An alcoholic is the falling-down drunk on
skid row.
Answer: Only three percent of alcoholics are on
skid row. Those alcoholics on skid row are undoubtedly in the last stages of
the illness. Most people with alcoholism are in the early and middle stages.
They have families, they hold regular jobs, they may not appear to be any
different from anyone else. The person with alcoholism may be an automobile
mechanic, an officer of a large corporation, an actor, a salesman, a press
operator, a stock clerk, a secretary, a housewife.
Clearly the disease of alcoholism is no respecter
of persons.
About 80% Australians use alcohol and
enjoy the relaxation it brings them. Unfortunately about one in fifteen of
these develop the disease of alcoholism. This disease eventually causes
premature death or insanity unless it is treated. But it is a slow progressive
illness and often requires five to twenty years before its victim becomes
unemployable or incapable of being a responsible employee or housewife.
Myth 2: Alcoholics
are hopeless drunks.
Answer: Nothing could be farther from the truth. While there is
no known cure, alcoholism can be arrested with proper treatment. Fifty to
seventy percent of employed alcoholics who receive treatment recover and lead
normal lives. For example, the businessman and the doctor who founded Alcoholics
Anonymous were once considered by their friends to be “hopeless drunks”.
Instead, they demonstrated that alcoholics are anything but hopeless. And the
fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, through which millions have received help,
offers dramatic proof that people with alcoholism can recover. High Functioning
Alcoholics (HFA's) are the most common form of Alcoholics, and the ones in most
denial.
Myth 3: Alcohol is the cause of alcoholism.
Answer: The exact causes are still not known despite continuing research.
However, it is known that alcohol by itself is not the only cause. If it were,
then there would be 1 alcoholic for each person who drank alcohol.
We can draw parallels with another disease
whose cause we do not know– cancer. Some people develop cancer, others do not.
Similarly, some drinkers develop alcoholism, others do not. Like cancer. in
another way, alcoholism can be treated and the chance of recovery is better in
the early stages. What is becoming very clear that there is a definite genetic
factor.
Myth 4: Alcoholics could recover if they had
enough will power.
Answer: Recovery from any serious illness requires
a strong will to live. This is not what we mean when we talk about "will
power". People do not recover from illnesses by simply resolving that they
will stop being sick! They can resolve to go to the doctor. That can help. They
can resolve to follow the doctor’s advice. That can help. They can resolve to
follow through with any kind of treatment that is necessary. All theses things
can help in their recovery from the illness.
Actually, most people with alcoholism have
a great deal of will power. For example, the person who has a responsible job
and a serious case of alcoholism. By sheer will power he gets to work in the
morning on days when with any other illness he would stay home in bed. After a
bender he gets up in the morning with butterflies in his stomach and suffers
from “the shakes”. Somehow he gets shaved without cutting himself too badly,
has a shower, puts on his clothes, and takes a bit of the “hair of the dog that
bit him” the night before. The nip of alcohol quiets his shaking nerves enough
so that he can get a cup of coffee and a slice of toast to sit in his stomach.
Then he goes off to work and somehow gets through the day even though he may
feel terrible. This is not the picture of a man lacking will power.
Instead, it is a picture of a conscientious
man who wishes to keep up appearances — a person who is suffering from an
illness and does not know that he can get treatment for it. Like most people,
he believes the myths about alcoholism being a moral problem.
Myth 5: Alcoholism is a self-inflicted moral
problem
Answer: Some people are ready to admit that
alcoholism is a disease — but then maintain it is a “self-inflicted disease”.
This is a pretty silly idea if you look at it carefully in the light of what
happens with other illnesses. Being overweight may help bring on a heart
attack. Yet, we never say a fat person’s heart attack was self-inflicted. Most
people have had the experience of mission sleep and fatiguing themselves, and
then catching a cold. Again, no one says that the cold was “self-inflicted”,
even though, with sufficient rest, they might not have caught the cold. Thus if
we say that alcoholism is “self-inflicted”, we also must admit that many other
illnesses are “self-inflicted”. In addition, we do not speak of any disease itself
as being a moral problem. ALCOHOLISM IS A DISEASE NOT A DISGRACE!
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Disease Concept of Alcoholism."
