Is Addiction a “Three Fold Disease?”

Some people say that alcoholism is a “Three Fold Disease: Physical, Mental & Spiritual” based on the quote:

We have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically.

Alcoholics Anonymous p.64

However, what folks in the program call the “-Ism’s” or the spiritual part of the illness, I believe are just normal human problems. What makes us different is what we do about them. I will talk more about “spirituality” else where and eventually link back here.

Everybody has problems. Some people deal with them healthily by working out, going to therapy, talking to loved ones, etc. Some people go to the opposite end of the spectrum. I drink. But it’s the fact that I drink in response that matters to a discussion of alcoholism, not that I have human problems.

Most of the problems that keep me drinking are emotional problems (future link to We Agnostics crux). For the purposes of argument, let’s call these spiritual. As a result, I think that the quote above is true. If I find a way to deal with my emotions, the mental part of my disease can be broken through. Since “the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind” and “would be academic and pointless if our friend never took the first drink,” the problem with my body will also become inoperative.

As such, I can buy that there is a “spiritual” solution to my problem, but I don’t buy that it is integral to the problem itself. At least from a disease model perspective… From a behavioral model perspective, the grooved have been many days a-greased by my emotional (spiritual) issues.