Can an alcholic be cured?

[Salty]

From Parade Magazine

ASK MARILYN
What Does 'Recovering' Mean Regarding Alcohol?
FEBRUARY 2, 2020 – 5:00 AM – 7 COMMENTS

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By MARILYN VOS SAVANT

When a person has successfully quit tobacco, he or she is considered cured. But when a person has quit alcohol, he or she is called “recovering,” even a decade later. Why?

—Mary Lanphier, Wichita Falls, Texas

Because former alcoholics face a world in which drinking is socially acceptable and promoted everywhere they turn. Former smokers aren’t given a “cigarette list” when they sit down at a restaurant. They aren’t offered a choice of cigarettes whenever they attend a party and expected to hold one while they’re there. They never read about which cigarettes pair well with what cheese. So plenty of former alcoholics use the word “recovering” to help themselves stay on guard.


OPEN FOR DISCUSSION

 

[church mouse guy]

The Surgeon General offered Rodney Dangerfield a cigarette.

An alcoholic is never cured because any resumption of drinking can immediately bring back the addiction.

I was taught that Isaiah 5:14 that says that Hell was enlarged deals with alcoholism. Only 3% or so of transient alcoholics ever recover. After Prohibition, Hollywood glamorized the drinking of alcohol. Television was prevented from airing ads for hard liquor. Shakespeare wrote in Othello, "I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains."

 

[Aaron]

There's nothing to cure. It's a behavior that needs to be reconditioned. It's like saying gluttony or sodomy can't be cured.

 

[church mouse guy]

There's nothing to cure. It's a behavior that needs to be reconditioned. It's like saying gluttony or sodomy can't be cured.

It's a physical addiction like drug addiction. Transient alcoholics die very young. Proverbs 23:29-35

 

[Marooncat79]

Stopping drinking was no big deal

Stopping the Redman, totally different story. Its a struggle

 

[Washad]

A lost man? No. They will always be subject to their passions.
A saved man? Yes. They are a new creation and no longer must walk in their former lusts.

 

[Revmitchell]

As a former drunk I would say there is nothing to be cured from. There often can be an initial physical reaction to obstaining that could require medical attention.

Other than that it is strictly a behavioral issue. There us a 4 billion dollar a year alcohol recovery industry that has a need for people to believe its a disease. Its a lie.

 

[Revmitchell]

As a former drunk I would say there is nothing to be cured from. There often can be an initial physical reaction to obstaining that could require medical attention.

Other than that it is strictly a behavioral issue. There us a 4 billion dollar a year alcohol recovery industry that has a need for people to believe its a disease. Its a lie.

 

[atpollard]

"Can an alcoholic be cured?"

Maybe.

 

[atpollard]

As a former drunk I would say there is nothing to be cured from. There often can be an initial physical reaction to obstaining that could require medical attention.
Other than that it is strictly a behavioral issue.

Could you enjoy one drink?

That would be the difference between "cured" and "recovering". If a former ALCOHOLIC can "enjoy" a few drinks in moderation on occasion like any non-alcoholic could, then he/she is indeed cured. If the former ALCOHOLIC maintains sobriety by abstaining from all alcohol, then that is not "cured", that is "recovering".

 

[Revmitchell]

Could you enjoy one drink?

That would be the difference between "cured" and "recovering". If a former ALCOHOLIC can "enjoy" a few drinks in moderation on occasion like any non-alcoholic could, then he/she is indeed cured. If the former ALCOHOLIC maintains sobriety by abstaining from all alcohol, then that is not "cured", that is "recovering".

Baloney. Those are recovery industry terms but has nothing to do with reality. It keeps them in lots of recovery dollars though.

 

[Reynolds]

As a former drunk I would say there is nothing to be cured from. There often can be an initial physical reaction to obstaining that could require medical attention.

Other than that it is strictly a behavioral issue. There us a 4 billion dollar a year alcohol recovery industry that has a need for people to believe its a disease. Its a lie.

Agree.

 

[church mouse guy]

Baloney. Those are recovery industry terms but has nothing to do with reality. It keeps them in lots of recovery dollars though.

I don't think that very many addicted to alcohol ever recover.

For one thing, the programs are mostly secular and Christian programs have a higher rate of recovery but the federal government has regulated the rescue missions out of business. We have one mission in Indianapolis, Good News, that does not take taxpayer money and so they can preach to the alcoholics. The other missions are barred from mandatory chapels because they take government money. Very few churches want the expense of a mission when they can get food stamps and surplus food and welfare and counselors from taxpayer money. Lester Roloff used to fight that battle in Corpus Christi.

Secondly, Indiana state hospitals used to have 90 day programs for alcoholics. No more. They stay in missions or they are arrested. Mostly, they are just help in jail overnight. In bitter cold weather alcoholics and other transients can be arrested for refusing to go to shelters, etc. This is done because of the high cost of treating people for frostbite and the loss of body parts while passed out in bitter cold weather outdoors in some parking garage or something. Businessmen have moved the rescue missions out of downtown Indianapolis into the neighborhoods but there are still a lot of mentally ill on the streets of downtown Indianapolis but there are no longer state hospitals for them as the State of Indiana has privatized care of the mentally ill to wash their hands of the liability. I don't know the condition of the private programs but I am skeptical. I know that alcoholics prey on the mentally ill and swindle them out of their disability payments.

It is more than just will as some of you are posting. It has been proven for three or four decades by cat scans that the natural cavities in the brain enlarge and the brain shrinks under daily heavy drinking. Many alcoholics are chain smokers. Younger people are addicted to both alcohol and various drugs. Some of the senses may be destroyed. Many alcoholics attack their spouses or best friends while drunk but are okay sober. I knew one guy who attacked his elderly parents because they refused to give him money for alcohol. Roloff told of a guy who cut off his hands after he killed his wife.

Yes, Jesus can take away all of that in an instant but the mission movement needs to be rebuilt. Fanny Crosby worked all the time in the missions.

 

[OnlyaSinner]

Could you enjoy one drink?

That would be the difference between "cured" and "recovering". If a former ALCOHOLIC can "enjoy" a few drinks in moderation on occasion like any non-alcoholic could, then he/she is indeed cured. If the former ALCOHOLIC maintains sobriety by abstaining from all alcohol, then that is not "cured", that is "recovering".

There's an old Country song with the line, "One drink is one too many, and a thousand not enough."

 

[atpollard]

Baloney. Those are recovery industry terms but has nothing to do with reality. It keeps them in lots of recovery dollars though.

So you do enjoy an occasional drink?

 

[Revmitchell]

The physical destruction of the body is not evidence that alcohol abuse is anything more than that.

The brain changes any time we make something a habit.

 

[Revmitchell]

So you do enjoy an occasional drink?

Nope but I also understand that any level of intoxication is wrong biblically.

 

[church mouse guy]

The physical destruction of the body is not evidence that alcohol abuse is anything more than that.

The brain changes any time we make something a habit.

After about 20 years of heavy drinking the damage is real.

 

[Marooncat79]

I wnt to the Union Rescue Mission in Memphis for yrs. like 86-91 until I moved to Indy.

Many men had ruined many lives.

I agree that Rescue Missions need to be rebuilt.

 

[church mouse guy]

I wnt to the Union Rescue Mission in Memphis for yrs. like 86-91 until I moved to Indy.

Many men had ruined many lives.

I agree that Rescue Missions need to be rebuilt.

Well, thanks. Maybe some folks have not seen the depths visible amongst transient alcoholics.

By the way, I say that it is medical because there is medical treatment given for delirium tremens in detox centers.