www.alphadictionary.com

• dipsomania •

Pronunciation: dip-so-may-ni-yê • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)

Meaning: Alcoholism.

Notes: I suppose a medical term that has been abbreviated (dipso) since at least the 1880s has proved itself a member of the general vocabulary. A person suffering from alcoholism would be a dipsomaniac, which comes with an adjective, dipsomaniacal.

In Play: Frieda Gogh read an advert in today's paper that read "Wanted: a few hopeless drunkards for testing a new patent remedy for dipsomania." Don't forget the clipping of this word, dipso: "I would like to see Jim Beam's liquor bill; he is such a dipso."

Word History: This word comes via Latin ultimately from Greek dipsomania "thirst madness" comprised of dipsa "thirst" + mania "madness". We have no idea how dipsa got into Greek, but we do know where mania came from; it shares a source with mental. In PIE there was a word men-/mon- "to think, mind". In Greek it was associated with mental instability, as mænad "frenzied woman". This sense carried over to mania, but only in Greek. In Latin it retained its reference to the normal mind, as we see in Latin men(t)s "mind", which also emerged as the suffix -mentis. English borrowed this suffix from French as -ment, e.g. statement, ailment, argument. (Let's all thank Jeremy Busch, who recommended polydipsia "inordinate thirst". However, when we discovered that we had not explored dipsomania, we decided we should do it first.)

The new terminology for the over-consumption or abuse of alcohol products is Alcohol-Use Disorder, in case anyone is interested.

I am.
Bless the DSM V.

Not a fit topic for discussion here on the Agora, but here's the article I got it from. Very interesting for those in the biz.

Read the article. I hope someday the wishes come true. Meanwhile AA, though not statistically verifiable, remains the best shot at sobriety. If a successful drug does come along, the spouse will still have to persuade the alkie to go to the doctor and admit he has a problem. First of 12-step program: Admit we have a problem and cannot help themselves.

Read the article as well and I know that for at least
the last fifty years, psychiatry and its related cousins
has been attempting to get alcoholics cured. To date?
None that I know of. I work with alcoholics and addicts
on a volunteer basis, many who have come from a failed
stretch with these DSM folks. It's all about money. If
an LMHP can get $100+ per session, why shouldn't they
prey on the poor 'addicted' person. And I say addicted
because psychiatrists, psychologists and LMHP's don't
consider that as a reality. Again it's all about money.
Bill Wilson didn't call it addiction either, to him it was
an allergy. Nothing, absolutely nothing works like
AA, NA, OA, CA, CMA and their related programs.
They can dream. We all can, perhaps some of these
dreams will come true, but curing cancer is a dream too,
not a reality. And there is no AA for cancer.