There are diseases that involve choice that are still accepted to be diseases…for example, lung cancer. People choose to smoke. Even in heart disease, people make choices as to diet and lifestyle, which influence their risk. A number of authorities who think it may not be helpful to think of alcoholism strictly as a disease.
Initially it allowed people to treat alcoholics in a humane way, rather than a dehumanized way. But there are definitely some problems with
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Alcoholics and drug abusers may be more likely to be victims of their body than of their mind. Addiction is a physical disease, not the result of a troubled mental state. Besides being physical, addiction is often passed genetically from parent to child.
Excessive drinking and drug usage are frequently viewed as a psychological problem, one that can only be solved when the abuser realizes why he or she became dependent. In counseling jargon, the problem has been dubbed…