[Phil153]

Is it a disease? No more than the mental "disease" that causes someone to each too much and get fat - which isn't labelled as a disease, funnily enough.

There's definitely a biological component. Some people have brains with low stress tolerance and are more subject to addictions such as alcohol, drugs or gambling and problems such as depression. They don't have a robust system for making "happy" chemicals like most others do, so in that sense, it is a disease.

But we are more than our brain chemicals, and in my experience and opinion the vast majority of people who become alcoholics do so ultimately because of an emotional choice, and if they made the decision to stop, they could. So I don't think you could classify it with other true diseases like bipolar or schizophrenia or herpes or cancer or homosexuality.