I have heard each referred to as a disease..of course each is self-inflicted..one has to be proactive, reach out and ingest/imbibe/whatever. You can't "catch" it from others, although there may be a genetic component to it. If someone has a predisposition or "weakness" when it comes to alcohol, one can simply not drink anything alcoholic. The taking of any kind of "leisure" drug seems to me like asking for trouble. I think of "disease" as something big like cancer..there are many different kinds and most of them are mysterious in that there is no one thing that caused it. We know what causes alcoholism and drug addiction..so we can avoid them! :)

In my opinion no it is a bad habit that can very easily get out of control.

Yes. Predisposition (genetically) to alcoholism would support alcoholism as a disease, not just a 'weak will' focused on alcohol.

We do know that neurological and psychiatric disorders, (including schizophrenia, alcoholism, and Parkinson's disease) are associated with changes in the brain that affect the nerves that communicate with each other through dopamine. Alcohol affects the brains of these people in a way that is different from non-alcoholics. A more comprehensive study of the proteins that carry the dopamine neuron communicating genes (and gene mutations) needs to be done to further pinpoint the physiological cause.

It is an addiction but it can have symtoms of a disease but at least you can go cold turkey and get rid of it for good.

Yes addiction is a brain disease. Although many people do not grasp a basic understanding of what that means. Although initial drug use might be voluntary, once addiction develops, control is disrupted. In many instances the neurological brain structure is altered, which means this is going to affect behavior and the actual processes of thought. For the average meth addict it is never something as easy as simple will power. Meth rewires the brain circuitry, how it sends and receives information and the natural dopamine receptors which reward us and make us feel good about things we should feel good about basically get shut off because meth releases about 100 times the amount of dopamine normally realeased from the brain at any given time. If your brain is getting more dopamine from another source than it needs, and in this case extremely more, then it won't produce any naturally even long after the drug and all its effects are non-existent in the body. This makes it almost impossible to feel happy or pleasure from anything other than the dopamine rush produced by the drug. The user becomes depressed, irritable, violent, even suicidal and homocidal. So once addiction sets in, and it usually sets in very quickly with meth, then the user is no longer using for the high, he's using just to feel normal and ok. This goes well beyond simple will power.

Yes. I do however perfectly understand why others say it's not. the problem is that a large part of alcoholism is mentally - they can't *understand* how they can live without alcohol.

I've seen severe cases of alcoholism. It's far from pretty, and many (not all) do want to quit, but they cannot. Some may argue that anyone can if they really try hard enough, but that comes from an unenlightened position, without experience of it. I myself have admittedly never suffered from it either, I've only seen it second-hand.

To me, it has the same stigma that many mental diseases currently have. If there is no physical problem (e.g. cancer, appendicitis), people argue that it's not a disease. However, it prevents people from living their lives in a normal way, they have problems functioning, both mentally, physically, emotinally and socially.

To say it's not a disease because it is self-inflicted is wrong - is lung cancer after 20 years smoking therefore not a disease?

I've actually got to go and eat now, so my answer is incomplete, but comment and I'll edit. I'm prepared for the - s.

Yes, however alcoholism is over diagnosed. Dependency issues are generally caused by other underlying issues. Resolve those issues, and the alcoholism might just correct its self.

Yes, it is.

I do not have personal experience but from what I have read and understand not only is it a medical condition it can also be genetic.

That's a good excuse.