What If Alcohol and Other Drug Dependencies Are Not Diagnoses?

Abstract

This paper challenges the predominant conceptualization in the chemical dependency field: DSM-III-R categories of alcohol and other drug dependencies are not diagnoses and their use obscures vital differential diagnosis and results in the misguided and harmful treatment. Conversely, this paper does not dispute the concept that substance addiction is a disease, but rather proposes that alcohol and other drug dependencies are not synonymous with alcoholism and drug addiction and argues in favor of the definition advanced in Alcoholics Anonymous (1976); it does not dispute that alcoholism and drug addiction are treatable with specifiable methods, but rather argues that substance addicts must be distinguished from functional abusers and that treatments must be designed accordingly; and it does not dispute that a recovery program is an essential foundation for alcoholics and drug addicts, but rather proposes that a treatment designed for one disease is potentially harmful when a client suffers from...