Reflection About Alcoholism

Does being an alcoholic mean that you have a disease? It seemed as though this was the main question throughout the course of this class. The biggest issue in answering this question is that there are so many definitions for the word disease. For example, Dictionary.com states that a disease is… “any harmful, depraved, or morbid condition, as of the mind or society” whereas Merriam-Webster labels a disease as… “an illness that affects a person, animal, or plant : a condition that prevents the body or mind from working normally”. So which definition, if any, refers to alcoholism? It’s hard to tell however, it’s apparent that no matter what the definition is, alcohol is truly damaging to not only the individual but to those around them as

There were tons of things that I learned in this course that stuck out to me immensely. One of those things was about the 5 stages of change. I realized that my father has been stuck in stage 1 for years without even thinking about stage 2. Stage 1 is the pre-contemplate stage in which the individual has no intention to change and they don’t believe that they even have a problem. When I read that, I was shocked. I think I reacted so strongly because I never knew that there was a stage labeled after my father’s drinking problem. In knowing that my father was stuck in stage 1, I decided to attempt to push my father into stage 2. The way I went about doing this was by encouraging him to consider what a life would be without drinking and I told him how I truly felt about his drinking which is something I’ve never expressed to him before. I think this is what really set up my father to move to stage 2 because I never expressed how I felt about his drinking to him before. So my father did move onto stage 2 which is the contemplation stage. Yes, he’s still drinking pretty heavily but at least now he’s open to change and more aware of the benefits of not drinking. I would have never helped my father work toward change

Previous to the speaker coming in, my perception of alcoholics was hatred and anger because I have seen the way that alcohol has affected not only my father’s health but his relationship with my other family members. However, after the presenter spoke, I was much more understanding and sympathetic. He described his struggles and revealed his raw emotions and that is what got me to realize that alcoholics aren’t necessarily terrible people. My main goal coming into this class was to see an alcoholic’s point of view and this speaker gave me that. He allowed me to see that people drink for various reasons but one of the main ones is depression. Depression can cause a good person to mess with bad things, such as drugs (alcohol), which makes others perceive them as bad. I am able to understand my father’s drinking a little better now because I believe is drinking came from a place of a depression just like the speaker’s did. It was great to hear from a person who has firsthand dealt with alcoholism because it gave me a different perspective on