Does LifeRing define alcoholism/addiction as a disease?
Like the “alcoholic” label, the “disease” model is a two-edged sword. Many people find it tremendously helpful in staying clean and sober. Others find it a wonderful rationale for chronic relapse. By all means adopt the disease model if it helps you stay abstinent. But if you find that the disease model mainly supplies your mind with rationalizations to slip and slide, then dump it and think of yourself instead as having made bad choices in the past, and making better choices today. LifeRing is not held together by any particular theory of alcoholism/addiction, but by a common commitment to the behavior of abstinence. Whatever theory works for you to get there and stay there is a good theory. You can always revisit the issue later. The definition of alcoholism as a medical disease is the key to public and private funding of treatment. There is a large and growing body of evidence that shows neurochemical, molecular changes in the brains of people under the influence and in the brains o
