I have quietly watched the board for the past few days, just waiting
to see where this conversation would lead. . . I wasn't sure I
wanted to comment, as I don't know that my opinion is any more right
or wrong than any of the others. . But, I'm starting to see a lot
of hostility in the messages ,and I don't like that. .

Here's the way I see it, for what it's worth to anyone.

We all know that alcoholism can lead to WKS. We also know that WKS
is not caused only by alcohlism. . . We know that, to an extent, WKS
can be treated, but not cured. . We know that the world doesn't know
much about this disease that affects our loved ones. .

But, here's where things get messy. . There is so much about both
alcoholism and WKS that we do not know for sure. . And we all have
our own interpretations of what research we find, or what doctors
tell us, or what we've experienced. . We can go out there and
probably find just as much research to support one opinion on
alcholism as we could for another. .Does that mean one is right and
the other is wrong? No. We find more doctors that have no idea
about WKS than we find doctors that do. Does that mean because
doctors don't know about it, it doesn't exist?? No.

I certainly have my own opinions about the causes, treatments, and
life of alcoholism, but I am choosing not to express them in an
effort to not fuel the fire.

Here's the bottom line, as I see it. . Because many of our loved
ones
still chose to drink, we cannot necessarily completely separate the
alcoholism from WKS, and it will be discussed from time to time. Our
loved ones' stories are all different- from the symptoms to how they
got the disease. Does it matter so much how we all got here, or why
we are fighting this?? To me, it seems much more important that we
are all here for support because we are dealing with a terribly
dibilitating disease. . It seems to me that maybe we should be
focussing more on that, and less on debating the specifics of our
opinions, as that can tear apart the good thing we have going here.
Let me ask you this: how many of you have someone else in your life
that truely understands what you're dealing with? Most of us do
not. For alot of us, this is the only place for understanding and
support. Lets not ruin that by bickering or debating our personal
opinions. .

Ok, I'll climb back off the soap box and let someone else take back
over. .

Beccah