What is your opinion about people who say being an alcoholic is a choice?

[Anonymous]

I believe the first or second drink were probably a choice for many people but I believe withdrawal symptoms aren’t a choice.

[Miristheiss]

Well, it is true.

You cannot become an alcoholic unless you WILLINGLY start regularly picking up alcohol and drinking it. You get YOURSELF addicted to it.

[Anonymous]

It becomes not a choice. It started out as a choice to drink, but alcoholism is an addiction, a disease that requires professional treatment.

[FunkyMonkee]

Who held you down and forced you to drink as much as it took to get you addicted?
My grandmother asked me about 35 years ago, to have a shot of Schnapps with her on Christmas. Everybody knows I never drink!! But, she insisted so, I tried two different flavours of it, neither of which was anything to write home about but they didn't exactly taste bad, either. A few months later, I was hanging out at a local bar with my brother (a rather big drinker), and he offered to buy me a drink expecting me to say no so, I said I'd have a root beer Schnapps. He bought it, I drank it. He suggested that if I add an ice cube to it, it tastes just like a root beer float so, he bought me another with ice and it DID taste just like a root beer float!! (I LOVE root beer!! And, especially floats!!) Over the next month or so, I had several more shots of it, doubles, with ice. Never more than a total of 6 shots (singles) per night. After my 3rd or 4th time of this, I started to notice that I was beginning to forget things! So, I stopped ever drinking any more of it! MY choice! Okay, Schnapps it nowhere near as strong as other booze but, had it BEEN as strong, I would've never tried it beyond the 1st or 2nd one!!
Whether Schnapps was what made me a bit forgetful, I don't know. I'm still slightly forgetful but it's been ever since then that I've never had another, even though I had easy access to it a number of times!! MY choice!!
Maybe this will help: I used to have a guitarist in my band that used all kinds of booze and drugs and, so did, Bob, my singer, to an extent but he wasn't anywhere near as bad as guitar boy (Jason)!! One day, Bob told Jason, "If you're going to use drugs, make sure it's YOU doing the DRUGS and not the DRUGS doing YOU!!"

[FreyaRed]

Today there is medication that helps to go over physical withdrawal phase. However most alcoholics are too weak to abstain from alcohol.
Ergo it is a choice since most of them stopped already consuming alcohol for a while but than started do drink again.

[AMS700CX4u2]

I lived in New Bedford, Mass for 17 years. It is the birthplace of Alcoholics Anonymous. For some it is a choice for some it is a family tradition. For some it is a survival skill, Peer pressure is high. Social pressure is usually not ignored. But you are right taking the first drink is a choice, and so is the last drink.

[PeachyPie93]

It is a choice.. my parents were alcoholics they chose through our childhood not to get help even though they made our lives chaotic and a lot of times very scary. My father has stopped but only because he had 2 strokes..
My mother still drinks quite often because she doesn't know how to deal with any emotions and will not get help. If someone is drinking so much without it they get shakes that is pure addiction and needs to go to rehab.. but to not get help IS A CHOICE.

[fivebyfour]

Physical withdrawal is def not a choice and can actually be fatal,,,

Mental withdrawal can also be very distressing of course and also cause physical symptoms,,,

I am tempted to go anon with this, but I'm not going to and just say PM is open to anyone who wants to talk about this,,,

[OneViewpoint]

It is a choice. Sugar coating that reality just enables addiction. Booze, tobacco, coke, heroin, prescription meds, food, sex. All of it is a choice.

[Agape93]

Because it is a choice to remain one. I say that as an alcoholic. Can I quit? Yes. Will it suck? Yes. Will I quit? No, it's how I get through my day without painting my ceiling.

[slatyb]

I tend to agree with you about addictions, but it raises the question "Is anything a choice? Do we have free will, or is it an illusion?"

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

Withdrawal is a consequence of a choice. Alcoholism is very much a choice.

[exitseven]

I think that it is not a choice. Some people are predisposed to it. However being a drunk is a choice.

[Redbeardviking]

They either lack sympathy, empathy, both and or cannot comprehend the blatantly obvious notion that nobody feels, thinks or can control their desires as they can and do.

[beefcakebradybatson]

They're mistaken. I had lots of alcoholic relatives and friends.

[msc545]

My opinion is that anybody that says that is incapable of critical thinking.

[blackeagle007]

It’s a disease

[Chazmatazz269]

They’re ignorant.