Too often one hears comments like: “oh, he/she has such an alcoholic personality” or “that’s such an alcoholic thing to say”. These statements are used to disparage people, even if they don’t suffer from the disease of alcohol dependency! The term “alcoholic” has unfortunately become a lazy, catch-all term of abuse designed to insult people who may not even have a drinking problem!
The English language should be used with greater accuracy and precision. When I look up “alcoholic” in Webster’s dictionary, I find: “caused by alcohol or liquor containing it; suffering from alcoholism; a person who has chronic alcoholism or is excessively addicted to alcoholic liquor”. And alcoholism is defined as: “a diseased condition caused by habitually drinking too much alcoholic liquor”. There are two things to note in these definitions: 1) one cannot put together these definitions without referring to the substance itself, namely alcohol; 2) these definitions never include moral deficiencies or character defects.
Furthermore, addictionists, psychiatrists and psychologists only use the term “alcoholic” in the context of the substance known as alcohol.
Unfortunately, the term “alcoholic” has become a fashionable term to describe: a) people we don’t agree with; b) people with temper problems who may or may not consume alcohol; c) substance-dependent patients who may or may not consume alcohol; d) people one may wish to hurt by using this term in a disparaging manner (even when they don’t drink); e) alcohol-dependent patients who have character defects, all of which are indistinguishable from the character defects of the human race in general… these are just a few modern examples of the sloppy popularization of this term.
Why is this important?
- Research scientists all over the world need to be able to communicate with each other using terminology that means the same thing to everyone. The term “alcoholic”, if it is to be used at all, should only be used in the context of the substance alcohol. Otherwise, the term loses all meaning.
- The term “alcoholic”, as it is sometimes bandied-about today, is used to imply that people with alcohol &/or substance dependency are somehow morally worse than “normal” people – that they are somehow different in their character defects from ”normal” people. This is a slippery slope.
- The reality is that patients who are alcohol &/or substance-dependent are neither better nor worse than “normal” people. Their character defects are no better or worse, no different in fact from those of “normal” people. The defects of character of alcoholics and addicts are not in and of themselves “alcoholic”.
- The crucial distinction between “normal” people and patients recovering from the disease of alcoholism &/or substance dependency is this: the “alcoholic”/substance dependent patient cannot afford to ignore his or her character defects; doing so could be lethal. The recovering “alcoholic/addict must work on his/her character defects to save his or her own life. The rest of the “normal” world may very well be able to go on ignoring its own defects and survive somehow. Addicts and “alcoholics” do not have this luxury. This point is beautifully made in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous when it discusses Resentments. It is well worth reading this exceptional passage. Note that the Big Book does not claim that resentments per se are “alcoholic” in nature, only that resentments are especially lethal to recovering alcoholics (and by implication to recovering addicts) and therefore must be confronted and dealt with in Recovery.
Leave a Reply