It is not a stretch to say that each person in the United States knows someone who is addicted to one substance or another be it drugs, food, or alcohol. A common misperception is that these addictions are related to body image. A woman dying from anorexia is not starving herself because she thinks she is fat. She feels so out of control in her life that the only area she can control is what she puts in her mouth and thus becomes obsessed. She gains a sense power by overcoming her body's basic needs for survival and measures her level of success based on her level of thinness. If she were to become thin enough, she would no longer need to control her food intake and would lose her only source of power, therefore she must always believe she is too fat. This is not an issue of body image. This is a spiritual affliction. Like eating disorders, alcoholism is not an issue of body image. Instead, it is a spiritual disease. According to The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, "the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, not his body" (A.A.,23). Therefore it is not a physical disease.
Alcoholism is not discriminating. According to Alcoholics Anonymous (hereafter referred to as A.A.), it afflicts men and women of all age groups in all races despite a person's socioeconomic level. It is a disease that destroys everyone and everything in its path, including those in the life of the alcoholic. Wives become bitterly resentful after dozens of broken promises while the children become fearful and lose any sense of security. Friends look upon the alcoholic with disgust and jobs are lost while the alcoholic swallows the family's nest egg with bottle after bottle of whiskey (A.A.17-18).
For unknown reasons, an alcoholic eventually loses all self co ...