The Fundamental Flaw in Treating Alcohol-Use Disorder

Americans have trouble defining what exactly an illness is. As the three readings indicate, addiction and alcoholism are real problems that Americans face day-to-day and they are often not considered to be illnesses, when in fact they are. As Glaser mentions, “an estimated 18 million Americans suffer from alcohol-use disorder, as the DSM-5 calls it,” thus it is definitely considered a disorder since it is in the DSM, and yet our culture implies it is solely an individual’s fault for having the disorder and it is a “problem” someone has. We frown upon alcohol-use disorder instead of asking why one may have this disorder.

If alcoholism and having a broken ankle are both illnesses, why do we treat them so differently? We have spent countless years working on a medical system to treat cancer, common diseases, and improve our medical technology for surgeries, MRI’s, and X-rays, but we have done nothing to resolve illnesses such as alcoholism and addiction. In order for our culture to fix the problem of alcoholism, we must first recognize it as an illness, work as a community to resolve it, and lastly, work to change the “norm” for treating the disorder.

As Coyhis and Simonelli mention, “Non-native recovery approaches often look at addiction as an individual disease, ignoring the social, political, or economic roots of addiction. The indigenous experience adds a dimension of acknowledging sociopolitical causes without removing an individual’s need to do the hard work it takes to heal. This is new, culturally specific thinking that can also add to the field of mainstream recovery knowledge (1928).” Native Americans use a cultural approach to treating and helping those suffering from alcoholism; it is not solely upon an individual. This holistic-view of treating an illness is something American culture has consistently lacked. While the AA 12-step approach is presented in a straight-line, the Native American approach to treating alcohol dependence is more of a broad picture, presented in a circle.

Americans have a stigma around alcohol. Many assume that those who drink excessively are alcoholics and that is their own problem they need to deal with, however “nine out of 10 excessive drinkers are actually not dependent on alcohol,” which may come as a surprise to many Americans. When an American discovers someone has an alcohol problem, most only know of AA as a treatment, but AA was originally intended for chronic, severe drinkers, as Glaser describes. Americans have a “one-size-fits-all” approach to alcohol dependency, which brings many to believe that AA is the only answer. This is not right and it occurs mostly because as an individualistic society that does not recognize alcoholism as an illness, there has been little research and education put in to the disorder.

Much like the rest of our healthcare system, we spend an enormous amount of money on treatment for alcohol – about $35 billion. And yet, there are little results to America’s treatment even working. With the Affordable Health Care Act’s expansion for coverage, we need to start recognizing alcoholism and addiction as real illnesses, resolve them as a community, and changing the norms for treatment in our nation. Which treatments should we be willing to pay for? It certainly should not be rehab facilities that are not based on scientific evidence or AA sessions that have a focus on faith and God. America needs to move away from this awful, wrong view on treating addiction and alcoholism and move towards a systematic difference. We are at the point where we can take a few points from mayors like Svante Myrick who are helping those addicted to heroin by creating a community-based treatment that recognizes addiction as a disorder, and helps those who are left to fend for themselves.