"Symptoms of Alcoholism" by Father Joseph C. Martin

Who is an alcoholic? Do you know one? Is there one in your family? Could you be one yourself? Father explores and answer some of these important questions.

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• FatherMartin
• Alcoholism
• Alcohol
• 12StepRecovery
• AlcoholAbuse
• Recovery
• Addiction

[keleeemo]

I have been sober 7 years by the Grace of God and AA. I nearly died and I would not be typing these words without AA and the solution it offered.

AA works but only if you work it.

[otter57]

Far too encompassing - there are obviously a range of circumstances and a range of addiction types.

[jasonroyyoung]

Alcohol is basically a legal poison, when abused, so instead of "drink responsibly", responsibly drink so it's not abused but very fine line between the two. Some people can handle it, others can't. Nobody needs to surrender to a "higher power" just understand that an alcoholic cannot stop without help and belief in himself or herself that it can and will be done. Without that belief in yourself not a whole lot can be done with anything that anyone does not just an alcoholic.

[jasonroyyoung]

Well listen to what this guy says about the nature of an alcoholic, they have already given the power to alcohol and let it choose what the alcoholic is going to do, drink, alcohol is a legal poison that kills the brain like is said in the full video. The only difference between alcohol and a lethal sedative that has been banned from medical use for decades one molocule of water! When alcohol is abused it has the same effect as either on the brain, a person basically goes braindead an dies so...

[BlatzBeer]

@Westalong I contend that it's no more delusional and misleading a concept than telling millions of people that they are "powerless" over this "disease" and that they must somehow "surrender" (whatever that means) to an external "higher power." I've personally witnessed, over three decades, how destructive to a person's recovery those ideas can be for most. And serious medical/sociological studies agree. Even AA's own data (embarrassingly) agrees.

[Westalong]

@BlatzBeer

I congratulate you on beating your substance abuse problem but the concept of controlled use of a mind-altering drug such as alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, marijuana being called social drinking/smoking/snorting/smok­ing is deluding millions of people. If you have to use mind-altering toxic substances with or without control in order to cope or function then your reality/normality is seriously compromised. As Scott Peck says...."we are all mentally ill to a greater or lesser extent"

[BlatzBeer]

@Westalong The rest of society calls them "social drinkers" along with 65%+ of Americans. I would call them people who consciously took control over their lives and came to grips, in their own way, with self-defeating behavior. Not the way I approached my own substance abuse problems, but the fact remains that much of what AA teaches is just plain myth. A few famous folks who moderated after problem drinking: Bing Crosby, Steve Martin, Johnny Carson, Robert Redford.

[Westalong]

@BlatzBeer

So the 17.7 % go back to a more moderate rate of poison ingestion which means that they kill themselves more slowly. If a person has to ingest a moderate amount of poison on a regular basis in order to feel good what would you call that person?

[ashit73]

Alcoholism exists mainly in the mind; therefore, it is bound to have an infinite number of characteristics and variables to some degree; the average person will have trillions of thoughts and rising mental states before they die. "If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic." If you are an alcoholic of the hopeless variety, you may not be able to stop on your own.

[BlatzBeer]

"(addiction)...once contracted...progresses until death."

Untrue. An NIAAA survey of over 43,000 Americans found that 17.7% identified as being alcohol dependent/abusers managed to go back to "low-risk" use (moderation). Interestingly, the same survey found that 75% of those who overcame alcohol dependence or abuse did it on their own, with absolutely no treatment or support group attendance.

Sorry, there's a lot of misinformation out there from so-called "experts."

[rickyd0821]

I have been sober for almost 8 yrs in AA, and my life is better than I could have ever dreamed, most of all, I am honest with myself. You dont have to defend what is right, and if you are critisizing AA than you probably have a resentment, otherwise, why would you bother?

[DCFunBud]

Father should be selling veg-o-matics.