I agree with you that Alcoholism is not a disease and have actually written about this myself. I'm not sure simple "good values" are capable of riding the world of Alcoholism, but I do think it is important for Alcoholics to recognize the reasons for their behavior and to take time to evaluate what is driving them toward such self destructive acts. Too many people place the blame on biology and disease, instead of taking the time to recognize the active part they are playing in their addiction.

I belive that alcholism is also not a disease, but a problem that people can struggle with in life. Many people turn to alcohol to deal with problems or just do it becasue they like too. It is a persons decision to do so and if you do have a a strong force telling you that you need to drink you have a problem. Overall people have the decision and if it was a disease many more people would drink unlike I have seen in my life. People chose to or not and thats the final argument.

I think often drinking behavior is nothing more than a response to surroundings. Anyone who has ever been to a party knows that it's no fun to be the only sober one in a crowd of fun loving drunks. In college and on occassion still today, I really enjoy myself at a drunken bash but my interests have expanded beyond this point and I choose to spend the majority of my time sober and exploring other pursuits. The problem arises only if a person feels they do not want to drink anymore but haven't developed any other social outlets. You often hear people say "I knew I had a problem when I was sitting at a party drinking and I didn't even feel like drinking. I just did it anyway." This statement is than often misconstrued as a lack of ability to stop drinking since your're doing it even when you don't want to. In reality, the fact that you don't want to points away from alcoholism as a disease and more towards a need to form new social outlets. The problem isn't that you're drinking at the party, it's that the party seemed to be your only social option so you drank while there.

Alcoholism and other substance abuse disorders continue to be a mystery trying to be unraveled by several different theories. I believe it is unlikely either purely a medical "disease" or based in any other theory, whether it be "self medicating", "culturally driven" or any other purist perspective. Addicts, like the rest of humanity are complex human beings with many layers of neurochemistry, intrapsychic conflict, family histories and cultural influences affecting their life in addiction and recovery. Everyone imho needs to slow down and integrate perspectives, so we can create multi-modal recovery programs, rather than fighting over who's theory is right or wrong.

Stephen Trichter, PsyD
Licensed Psychologist, San Francisco, CA