Please help out a student!

Hi there, I am a student studying drug and alcohol dependence. I have a paper due and would like some input. The general question is:
"Why can some people, who have diagnosable dependence problems, at a later time resume drinking normally?"
In other words, do you think it's possible for someone addicted to alcohol to beat their addiction and go back to normal patterns of drinking? In theory, if alcoholism is a disease (as it is generally accepted to be), shouldn't it be "curable" thereby allowing a former alcoholic to drink normally again?
Sorry for the long post and I would appreciate any input!

What you say seems on the surface to make sense. However, after 31 years of AA meetings, I have seen people over and over again stay dry for a while (days to years) then start back into alcohol with terrible results. At times people seem to be able to go back and drink safely for a period of time days to years without too much trouble. It all depends I guess on your definition of being able to control one's drinking. Is staying out of jail for a year, but not 10 years a success story. What time period do you have in mind? Of course many can control their drinking for a year or so. What could would it have done me to stop drinking in my 20's for 10 years, go back drinking for 5 then die or be put in jail for a long time.

What you may want to consider is quality of life. A person may be able to go back and drink and life a marginal life in a one room apartment, on welfare for the rest of his life--is that successful drinking? What would you define as a good life? By going to AA, staying for decades, I was able to get an advanced degree, raise a family, and get listed in Who's Who in two different fields. I would have never gotten close to any of that if I drank.

What I'm saying is just my thoughts. But over the years, I have noticed many people not be able to handle social drinking. I would imagine that some could, but I have not seen or heard of them. The number who can is probably very small.
Jim S

Grad…
You might want to look into Moderation Management. That program puts forward the notion that an alcoholic can learn to drink safely. They have a web site and testimonials to back up their assertions. I might also mention that the founder of that organization is in prison as we speak for vehicular homicide for killing a couple while driving down the wrong side of the highway in a blackout. Apparently she didn’t learn to drink all that safely. And like Jim said, once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. I believe that a real alcoholic never learns to drink like a normal drinker, never.

One more thing… there are a host of diseases that are at present incurable. Luckily this one is arrestable. One can’t say that about all deadly diseases.

Grad, if you are a student doing research about recoverability from alcoholism, fine.

But if you are drinking and trying to figure out how you can maintain your access to alcohol and stay out of whatever hardships it has created for you, you are fighting a losing battle. Alcohol will eat your lunch.

And if you are dry at the moment, and can’t see a life worth living without a drink every now and then, you are in a very slippery place. If something doesn’t change in the way you think about yourself and your relationship to alcohol, you will drink again. And if alcohol was interfering in your life before, it will get worse. A lot worse. I guarantee it.

Don’t kid yourself about this disease. It does not respond to logic, it does not respond to reason, and it does nor respond to the tears of the people who love us. Not to anthropomorphize it, but it is an insatiable beast that will never stop until either the real alcoholic undergoes the needed physic change of he dies. That’s it.

I hope we were helpful
Richard

I appreciate your responses, and let me please say that I don't mean to offend anyone with my questions. I am simply trying to understand the problem of addiction from multiple viewpoints. I don't mean to make light of a series problem, nor do I mean to demean abstinence. I myself find it hard to understand a diagnosable alcoholic resuming "normal" drinking, but there are instances of it happening, even if very rare. Addiction/dependence can be looked at from one of any pschological models. For instance, the medical model says that addiction is a biological/genetic condition and thereby can be viewed as incurable. But, a psychoanalytical approach would claim that addiction is a manifestation of some subconscios conflict, and if that conflict is resolved, the addiction is cured.
Thank you again for your thoughts.

Grad…
I don’t think you offended anyone, you certainly didn’t offend me.
The only reason we were so strident about this subject is Jim and myself have spent a lot of time working with alcoholics. And just about to a man, self delusion and denial are the primary traits of a true alcoholic.

Again like you said, there are many yardsticks to measure alcohol dysfunction. Just how bad is this drunk, and is he as bad off as that drunk. God only knows.

I myself, have never seen, what I would call a true alcoholic, go back out and drink like a normal person. I suppose if we look at a large enough population, one would show up, but I would never bet my life that I am that one.

The science seems fairly uniform on this point. We can never return to drinking without the phenomenon of craving reasserting itself.

I am not equating classic addiction with alcoholism. I have some experience with opiate addiction. Almost without exception repeated exposure to heroin will result in heroin addiction. But 9 out of 10 people who repeatedly expose themselves to alcohol never develop alcoholism. They share some traits, but classic addition and alcoholism are not the same animal.

I am an alcoholic. My puppy didn’t die when I was a child, I wasn’t abused as a child, I feel I had no childhood subconscious conflict needing to be resolved. After I became a raging alcoholic, I created an enormous amount of emotional hardship for myself, and that indeed needed to be addressed. But those issues were a result of my alcoholism, not the cause of it.

Every alcoholic I ever met, and I have met a few, wished with all his heart that some way, some how he could drink safely. We have tried every imaginable method to do just that. And after one failure after another, we either died wet, or were beaten into a position of reasonableness.

Grad, good luck with your research, but just look at the outcomes, somewhere between 90% to 95% of people diagnosed as alcoholics die of the disease. Self delusion and denial result in a truly dismal recovery rate.

Richard

I agree 100% with Richard. What must be added is that some people do stop at least for a while without AA. I've met a few who become active in church, and that stops them from drinking. I've seen some people go to AA a lot for a few years, then stop going. Many stay sober for a time--a few years maybe. Many stay sober for a few years then go back out and get worse than ever.
Jim S