First and foremost: let me be clear that I am in no way undermining the struggle, pain, and destruction that alcoholics and their families and friends are faced with. It is serious business, and I treat it as such. While I am fortunate enough to not personally have such a terrible condition, I had a family member who did. After several trips to treatment centers my sis-in-law lost that battle, and her life, 10 years ago at the very young age of 32. The pain of her death is still felt and has caused an everlasting rift in my wifes family. I know what alcoholism is capable of.
On to the topic at hand, is alcoholism a disease? The medical community says so, thousands of treatment centers say so, and billions of dollars paid out to those centers seems to reinforce the idea, but is it really, honestly, and truly a disease?
We'll start with some history. I'll save my opinions until later.
The conception of this yet unnamed condition being a disease was made by a doctor and politician by the name of Dr. Benjamin Rush, who used his theory to bolster his prohibitionist stance in the early 1800's. It is also interesting to note that he also classified dishonesty, political dissension, and being of African American descent as diseases. This train of thought carried through into the 1900's with other like minded politicians and prohibitionists.
In 1849 Magnus Huss, a Swedish physician, coined the term "alcoholism" and determined it to be a disease.
Then in 1946 E. Morton Jelinek published a study to further the concept of this disease into the medical community. The study was funded by two AA members, and the information therein was gathered from people who were also AA members. There was much controversy surrounding the study, and in later years it was determined to be almost completely fraudulent and skewed to reflect the agenda of the funders of the study, one of which was Marty Mann. Jelinek also published a book based on those studies, which is surprisingly still used today to diagnose alcoholism. It was also later determined that he had lied about his educational and medical background to gain acceptance from the medical community, and to further fund his research.
Marty Mann was a wealthy socialite party girl, who became the first female member of AA after a failed suicide attempt. She was instrumental in removing the public notion of alcoholism being a personal choice and placing it into the category of a disease. This resulted in an increase in funding for her own organization, the National Counsel for Alcoholism.
Mrs. Mann is tied to the founder of the National Institute for Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, who also funded and used the fraudulent finding of Jelineks research to lobby for and procure insurance payments for those admitted to his own treatment centers. The 28 day treatment program was born. Today it is a multi-billion dollar industry.
In 1964 the AMA bumped alcoholism from an "illness" up to a "disease". They then as now use Jelineks fraudulent research as a basis for their decision.
Most recently genetics has come into play, though each time an answer is supposedly found, it is almost immediately refuted. There is still no known genetic link to alcoholism.
On to the topic at hand, is alcoholism a disease? The medical community says so, thousands of treatment centers say so, and billions of dollars paid out to those centers seems to reinforce the idea, but is it really, honestly, and truly a disease?
We'll start with some history. I'll save my opinions until later.
The conception of this yet unnamed condition being a disease was made by a doctor and politician by the name of Dr. Benjamin Rush, who used his theory to bolster his prohibitionist stance in the early 1800's. It is also interesting to note that he also classified dishonesty, political dissension, and being of African American descent as diseases. This train of thought carried through into the 1900's with other like minded politicians and prohibitionists.
In 1849 Magnus Huss, a Swedish physician, coined the term "alcoholism" and determined it to be a disease.
Then in 1946 E. Morton Jelinek published a study to further the concept of this disease into the medical community. The study was funded by two AA members, and the information therein was gathered from people who were also AA members. There was much controversy surrounding the study, and in later years it was determined to be almost completely fraudulent and skewed to reflect the agenda of the funders of the study, one of which was Marty Mann. Jelinek also published a book based on those studies, which is surprisingly still used today to diagnose alcoholism. It was also later determined that he had lied about his educational and medical background to gain acceptance from the medical community, and to further fund his research.
Marty Mann was a wealthy socialite party girl, who became the first female member of AA after a failed suicide attempt. She was instrumental in removing the public notion of alcoholism being a personal choice and placing it into the category of a disease. This resulted in an increase in funding for her own organization, the National Counsel for Alcoholism.
Mrs. Mann is tied to the founder of the National Institute for Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, who also funded and used the fraudulent finding of Jelineks research to lobby for and procure insurance payments for those admitted to his own treatment centers. The 28 day treatment program was born. Today it is a multi-billion dollar industry.
In 1964 the AMA bumped alcoholism from an "illness" up to a "disease". They then as now use Jelineks fraudulent research as a basis for their decision.
Most recently genetics has come into play, though each time an answer is supposedly found, it is almost immediately refuted. There is still no known genetic link to alcoholism.
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