Well, the problem I have with this is that most of us alcoholics don't admit to ourselves that it's a disease and we find every trick in the universe to fool others and our own mind into continuing to drink. Sometimes for years and years until everything and everyone we know is destroyed.
If it's a disease then, it's a mental disease first.
If you are diagnosed with any other disease, do you deny it for 20 yrs. before getting help? Probably not.