"We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy;that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile upon them and become astonishingly difficult to solve."~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Doctor's Opinion, pg. xxviii~
When you look at alcoholism, and many other addictions, as a valid illness, it is like someone has just turned the light on so you can see the true nature of this problem. It is a problem that does need treatment and ongoing preventative care or there is sure to be a relapse.
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Once I started looking add alcoholism and other addictions in this way, it not only made me look at my own addictions and shortcomings differently but also those of other addicts. As I am in the healthcare industry as a career, I have been treating alcoholics and addicts with more repsect, dignity, and empathy since I have been in recovery. They (we) are no longer people with weaknesses and lack of self-restraint but real people with real health problems, who need real help.
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