An illness. I am (I don't drink though but I am still an alcoholic) and it is the most terrible thing to live with and not easy to stop. Or rather not easy to make the decision to stop, once you do it is not as bad.

If you go to AA it's an illness b/c the alcohol ravages the brain to want it all the time. It's substance abuse that "need".

It's an illness. I'm quite bitter about this subject so I'll have to be careful what I say. I know of someone who's alcoholism turned him into a violent, horrible man and even after he died the damage caused by him lives on in the people he left. Difficult lives made even harder. It's late and I'm ranting. It would make me feel better to answer 'self inflicted' but I would be wrong.

An illness. It is a very destructive one to the sufferer and their families.

hmmm... i think it can turn into an illness - but it has to be self inflicted. it's not like you can catch alcoholism - right?

Alcoholics certainly aren't an illness or self-inflicted. Alcoholics are humans. AlcoholISM is classified as a disease. "The term "disease" refers to a disorder of structure or function. The term can refer to a physical disorder, such as diabetes, or to a mental disorder, such as schizophrenia. Diseases can be short-lived, such as the common cold, or life-long, as in sickle cell anemia. In the case of alcoholism, research has demonstrated both genetic and environmental contributors to the development of a condition that carries significant physical morbidity. Such factors as a typical course and well-described epidemiology (the incidence and prevalence of the condition) also contribute to the establishment of a disease entity." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease_theory_of_alcoholism Certainly alcoholism has a behavior component, but that does not necessitate that it is a free choice. Genetic and environmental factors are strong, and one begins to have an alcohol problem while others would remain a social drinker. Indeed, many diseases have some root in the behavior of the person with the disease - cancer, STDs, etc. Yet, they are still diseases.

I think each alcoholic has a different reason for being addicted. For some it's self-inflicted, for other's it's an illness. However I do believe every single one of them can help themselves with the right support.

It's both. Unless somebody forced you to drink your first drink, you started it by choice. Then, for some, it turns into a craving that they find harder and harder to resist. It's like STDs - you don't catch them from the air, or touching a doorknob that some infected person touched. It's an illness by some definitions, but you caught it by deliberately exposing yourself to it.

YES !!! First, it is self inflicted, then it becomes an illness.

I think its like smoking, you start out wanting to try it & then you get hooked. I come from a long line of family members that always drank alot & when I was younger I think I could've been one if I wouldn't have had my son. But I realized I did't want him in the environment that I was raised in. I try to keep him away from all of that as much as I can. I've also seen friends who never had any family members that I was aware of turn into alcoholics. But no body's perfect & we all have our addictions whether its food, sex, drugs, love , attention whores they are all forms of addictions just some are worse then others but they still bare the same hardships on your families one way or another.