Good points @MissQuinn thanks for sharing.
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@Oliverjava I think it comes down to what resonates with you in your personal recovery journey. For me, there is no empirical evidence to support the disease theory of alcoholism so it doesnāt resonate with me. It also follows the line of thinking that it is something beyond my control. Something I will forever be a slave toā¦which it is not. (I feel like weāve discussed this before)
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@Melrm When I posted this thread I was hoping that you would comment as you are very knowledgeable with opinions differing from my own. Thank you for providing the counter to my argument. 
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@MissQuinn I appreciate your views as well. I think itās healthy to discuss different views and ideas because this is how we learn. You and @Oliverjava have to ability to bring up great topics of discussion and keeping it civil.
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My dad was an alcoholic. My sister is an alcoholic. I was extremely close to being an alcoholic if i wasnt already. Its a choice not a disease. My son has a disease he was born with. That wasnt a choice. He now has to live life with this, he cant decide he no longer wants his disease and be healthy. You choose to do drugs or alcohol. You can decide to stop using or drinking. Im on day 27 and never looking back.
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I believe alcohol can be as addictive as anything else in life. Itās a choice yes, but we can get addicted to the way things make us feel, and thatās where I believe alcoholism comes into play.
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I donāt believe alcoholism is a disease. I call it āpuppies and unicorns,ā because that totally changes everything. Pfft, semantics.
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Iām going to be honest on this and say I tried not to laugh a little over the semantics bit but ultimately failed because my drinking mindset had a little voice in my head saying āWant to go have a few unicorns?ā 
laughter is the key.
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While in recovery this last time I was taught a lot about the brain and how it works. They have learned so much through the years and yes we can be genetically predisposed. What happens is we all have a line to cross and for some it could be right after your first drink and others it could take 20 years of drinking but once we cross that line the brain will never go back thus making us alcoholics/addicts. It was very interesting some of the things I was taught. My first time around I chose to recover with the program of AA only and now learning so much more of the way the brain works helped me. Call it a disease, call it a disorder? But to say it is neither is wrong. I too was just diagnosed with ADHD in Dec. which also may have contributed to the addiction process. Stay sober everyone whatever you chose to call it, just donāt drink or use! 
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I had to change my way of thinking. I call it a disease because that helps me realize that I need to get better. That I can get better, and that Iām sick. Itās hard for me to consider it as a mental disorder, because I feel that there would be nothing I could do about it. That Iāll always be like this way and nothing will ever change. So it helps me to think of it as a disease. Something that if I donāt get better from it could eventually even kill me. I donāt believe that I am 100% correct, but this is what works for me.
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This is such an interesting topic! I still donāt know if I would be classified as alcoholic. ā¦I didnāt experience any physical withdrawal when I stopped which in medical opinion would suggest I was not addicted.
But mentally - my mind went stir crazy when I stopped. It was all I could think about!!! It was far more intense than just āI really want someā.
Psychological addiction, is that a thing?
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I think the answer really is both. I think it depends on the individual. I follow another forum where Iām constantly attacked for not joining aa. Because Iāll relapse and I need the steps, and ill cave for working at a bar. Theyre not wrong IF i had the disease. For me, itās situational. Iāve looked to liquor to cope. All I need to do is to beat it and deal with my underlying causes and now that Iām helping my depression, liquor isnāt an issue. For some its just hard wiring and its the only root cause. Nothing in life is black and white. It really depends on that personās own experience. I hope that makes sense. *im not better yet hence sobriety. But when im okay emotionally, ill decide then.
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I 1st started drinking because it made my life easier , after a while it made life harder but by that time i was addicted. I didnt give myself a disease i gave myself an addiction/bad habbit. I think its very disrespectful to the people with real diseases if we call our choice a disease.
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Yep some of us just have addictive personalities
@Kane I agree with you about it being disrespectful. My mom is a cancer survivor so perhaps thatās why this topic has been weighing on my mind. But I donāt think that it just can be boiled down to a bad habit. Take for instance obsessive compulsive disorder. Itās not something people can just stop doing. We experience life and condition our brains to have certain responses to emotional stimuli. Picking up a drink is just as much of a conditioned response as any other compulsion - it just happens to utilize a physically addicting substance.
Calling it a bad habit invalidates the experience of all those fighting to quit and can be just as disrespectful as calling it a disease. Putting it in the category of a disorder shouldnāt be offensive to anyone.
Again thoughā¦if it means that insurance will cover care then so be it. I just wouldnāt dare call my problem with alcohol a disease to someone who has been through years of surgeries, chemo therapy, radiation, injections, hormone therapy, and the resulting trauma from all of these treatments.
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@MissQuinn OCD - cognitive behavioral therapy + medication.
Not sure if youāre jusy saying whatever sounds good in your head at this point, but I wouldnāt want someone to read that and think, oh yeah, I have OCD and nothing can be done about it.
I seriously doubt anyone with a ārealā disease cares whether or not certain things are classified as one thing or another. Turning the conversation over this way and now accusing others of being ādisrespectfulā is absolutely ridiculous. Thereās no winning this argument. People are going to be on both sides of the issue. Really, however you want to think about it and how it helps you should be what matters. Besides what alcoholic would tell a cancer patient, āI know exactly how you feel,ā or āI have a disease too.ā They wouldnāt because thatās just stupid. Sobriety is an extremely personal thing. We are perfectly happy just hurting ourselves.
My mother in law was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Sheās at the end of her treatment. Did the surgery, chemo, then radiation. I wouldnāt ādareā either, but I also wouldnāt put them in the same category. It didnāt even cross my mind that we have anything in common, because uh, I donāt have cancer. Saying theyāre one in the same is silly because your taking one disease and comparing it to something completely different. Look guys, look how different these are! Well duh.
disĀ·ease
dÉĖzÄz/
noun
noun: disease; plural noun: diseases; noun: dis-ease; plural noun: dis-eases
a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific signs or symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.
"bacterial meningitis is a rare disease"
synonyms: illness, sickness, ill health; More
infection, ailment, malady, disorder, complaint, affliction, condition, indisposition, upset, problem, trouble, infirmity, disability, defect, abnormality;
pestilence, plague, cancer, canker, blight;
informalbug, virus;
datedcontagion
"herbal preparations to treat tropical diseases"
a particular quality, habit, or disposition regarded as adversely affecting a person or group of people.
ādepartmental administration has often led to the dread disease of departmentalitisā
Semantics!
dÉĖzÄz/. Diseaseā¦
noun
a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific signs or symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.
"bacterial meningitis is a rare disease"
synonyms: illness, sickness, ill health; More
a particular quality, habit, or disposition regarded as adversely affecting a person or group of people.
ādepartmental administration has often led to the dread disease of departmentalitisā
I know that is me. I do everything to the point of addiction. Exercise, laxatives, dieting, alcohol, social mediaā¦ Though usually Iām only obsessive about one thing at a time (though diet and exercise often go togetherā¦but laxatives I turn to when the diet and exercise stop working).
I just donāt seem to know how to do anything āwith the flowā. It is all or nothing.
I respect your opinion but drinking is on the same lines as smoking or taking drugs. Im also addicted to cannabis and i see that as a bad habit too. Many people think cannabis isnt addictive but from my experience its worse coming off cannabis than alcohol, thatl be the next thing i quit. But i will need professional help with that one. Calling it anything other than addiction or bad habit for me will just take away the fact that i have to be responsible for my own actions
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@Elisabeth ok. I donāt think it was at all necessary to come on here and change the tone of the entire discussion. Thatās exactly what this is (or was) - a friendly discussion among people affected by the same issue. Iām not trying to WIN anything. Iām not saying that it is not a disease because it would be ridiculous to try prove something that is an accepted fact in the medical community. Albeit, a THEORY that was posited over 60 years ago.
My intention with this post was to get input about how people feel about their own experiences with the stigma attached to referring to it as a disease and how using that terminology changes what it means to people.
People have posted in both directions - if calling it a disease helps with your own personal recovery then awesome. If not thatās ok too. I really donāt understand why you feel it necessary to attack me for having an opinion that clearly differs from your own.
1.) I donāt know what you were trying to prove with your opening statements. I was not saying that there is no treatment for OCD. The only reason I bought it up was to make the point that you canāt simply WILL your way out of it. The fact that it does require cognitive behavioral therapy proves the point that I was trying to make about conditioned responses needing re-wiring. Perhaps cognitive behavioral therapy should be explored for alcoholism as well.
2.) I wasnāt accusing anyone of being disrespectful. I was simply stating that it CAN be considered disrespectful. If you go up to an addict and say āItās just a bad habit. You should just stop.ā Can you not see how someone could be offended?
Again, I donāt why you felt the need to come on here and stomp all over a perfectly civil discussion about this topic. I donāt know why you feel the need to attack me when I clearly have not been attacking anyone on here. I have been welcoming towards those with other opinions. @VSue and @Melrm have disagreed with me and contributed to the discussion in a non-combative way.
If you are incapable of keeping things civil I think that perhaps itās best that you keep your feelings to yourself. Your comments have been condescending and argumentative. Posting the definition of disease at this point in the conversation and stating āSemantics!ā over and over is tedious and unproductive.
I thought this forum existed so we could have a SAFE space to discuss issues related to our afflictions without judgement and without being attacked. I guess not.
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