Originally Posted by
Sorensen 
no because it isn't, it's an addiction, we can be addicted to almost anything. Saying you have a disease is an easy out
No matter what I or anyone else calls it, there is nothing "easy" about my alcoholism.
People who invoke the disease model as an excuse to continue drinking don't suffer any less than those who frame it as an "addiction" or a choice.
Classifying alcoholism as a disease carries some weight as a metaphor for some, but not for everyone. When the AMA classified it as a disease in 1955, it was partly because they didn't exactly know what to call it or how to treat it, and partly because, as a disease, they could bill for it. Health care reform in the States and health insurance benefits for employees proliferated at around the same time. This coincided with the advent of Social Security disability coverage for medical conditions.
In the end, nothing matters to me as much as what I do about my alcoholism and all that comes with it; what I call it is trivial in the face of what it's done to me.