For years I have heard people describe alcohol issues as a disease and maybe🤷🏻‍♀️ I have been noticing that it’s actually most common in people that have had a lot of trauma. I don’t know that we were born with this “disease” but rather that most went through a lot of things that were just too heavy to process. I think that once we are able to process and heal trauma, the need to medicate is just not really there anymore. Maybe just my experience.
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I just think “disease” sounds so final and in my experience if you do the real work, it doesn’t need to be.
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Ya I don’t like the word disease either tbh but I know in my situation I was drinking alcoholically from the beginning at a young age, prior to any trauma.
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My experience has been that some folks have had trauma and some haven’t. I know tons of people who have and had perfectly normal upbringings and lives without issues, except where alcohol is concerned.
What it boils down to is it doesn’t matter why we have the disease. We have it or we don’t.
What we do about it is the important thing.
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No matter how much trauma I process drinking and drugging will never be something I can do successfully.
Call it a disease or don’t. Allergy/craving/alcohol use disorder/alcoholic are just words. Labels. I try not to get too hung up on them.
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Alcoholism has been in my family for a long time. My brother died at 35 with no functioning liver. Alcoholism is, as I was told by professionals, is a disease but unfortunately it’s not looked at that way because people think it’s a choice (my family included) and you just stop. No it didn’t work that way for me. I had to get medically detoxed and put on withdrawal medications and seizure meds. People need to educate themselves so they can help the person that is suffering with this miserable thing call Alcoholism. It’s the worse thing I’ve had and still deal with daily.
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Disease is such a horrible word.Now addicted to alcohol well I can live with that. My family and I were and some still are addicted but really everyone has a choice . I used to be a people pleaser and after so many years I realized what I lost and missed out.. But its never too late to quit I say. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and forgave people that harmed me. It doesn't mean I socialize with them. I do what makes me Happy.. Now I travel, hike etc.. Its like I'm a kid again but with responsibilities.. I had a lot of trauma but learned to let Go..or it will hold you down..
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I really appreciate this thread, thanks! Alcohol causes trauma, as it is a poison that our bodies have to process out; I wonder if that's the link.
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I definitely agree
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Dr. Gabor Mate' has researched and studied trauma and addiction ...basically, you are right it's just a matter of what percentage....he pretty much gets at about all addiction having a root in trauma....I dunno about all that, but if you want affirmation on your theory just check out Gabor Mate' on YouTube ( there's a ted talk on this subject for example)
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Good words
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Totally agree and often lost point. The more I heal my trauma, the less I think about alcohol and the fewer relapses. Trauma needs a coping strategy and for me booze honestly kept me alive but it’s addictive so then I was dealing with a maladaptive coping strategy and addiction that made me dysfunctional. Stage 1 of reclaiming my life was getting in a safe enough space I could interrupt the addiction, stage 2 was withdrawal physically, stage 3 was withdrawal mentally and emotionally but to do that required active trauma recovery and healing. BC of the biochemical realities of the addiction, any relapse in stage 3 is really dangerous bc my body takes over and wants more. I’ve been bobbing for awhile but finally have worked thru enough emotional issues, significantly reprogrammed my brain in the way it responds to stress, and reduced cortisol levels such that stressors process really differently and alcohol is increasingly becoming unappealing. Big game changer for me was binaural sound therapy- great apps out there. Immediate brain impact. Good luck everyone!
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I honestly think it’s a choice… cancer is a disease.. nobody chooses to have cancer.. it really is a decision that we decided to make.. and we can decide and choose to break that cycle…
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True dat. However after 14 years sober and previous decades of relapses. I don’t think there is just one true answer. I didn’t have trauma deep enough to drive me to alcoholism. I just liked getting drunk and being wild! I was just an ordinary selfish addict that wanted more and more, until the wheels fell off🤣
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There is a reason why when doctors talk about it they call it “alcohol use disorder” and not a disease. It’s a disordered behavior often brought on by trauma and not a disease that is contracted or inherited.
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I have a hard time with the word disease because that tells me that it’ll always be a struggle.
The first time I quit (for 688 days) it was easy. I hardly thought about drinking 90% of the time. Until I ran into a really difficult situation emotionally and I thought, somehow, that a gin and tonic was going to make it better. It didn’t.
178 days later - another Day 1 (Day 4 today).
I think more than disease it’s brain patterning. Kind of a story our brain tells us that is totally false but rings so true.
(Does that even make sense?)
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Yes! I like that way of looking at it!
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Great comments. Great post. 
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When I consider disease as dis-ease it is easier to process. I believe for me there was a genetic component but I also experienced the trauma of being raised in an alcoholic home. My recovery is that I don't need a drink to cope but I do believe that if I did take a drink my dis-ease would return.
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Alcoholism is a very complex disease. At the cellular level, alcoholism gets broken down and begins to substitute and replace sugars for the alcohol sugars. This creates the physical addiction and when people get sober, their body goes through a change (withdrawals). This is the body’s response. At the emotional level, you begin to grow. This is very difficult because you feel the physical difference, but you grow. A sponsor told me when you stop growing emotionally and spiritually when you are drinking/drugging. And when you get sober, you begin to grow again and you feel your emotions. So, there are physical changes and emotional changes, and sadly most of us can’t handle that. But those who can become sober and become a “person” again. It took me a while to figure that out, and now I have 30 years of being sober.
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