>>> Alcoholism has been recognized as a disease by the AMA for nearly 50 years now.
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>>Kids not being able to pay attention in school is apparently a disease to.
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>>It means nothing.
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>>> It's treatable, it's curable, but it sure isn't just a matter of choice or willpower.
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>>Statistically, if its treated as a disease, isn't the treatment usually less effective (ie, always fail horribly)?
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>Almost all the treatment approaches fail horribly. Rehab has something like a 3% success rate. AA has probably the best record around and it's still a long shot.
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>Please don't take me wrong. I HAVE NOT GIVEN UP. It's just not an easy thing to beat. And it burns me up to take glib potshots from people like John. Just stop doing it. Yeah, right, just get over that lung cancer, it's up to you.

There is a world of difference between cancer and alcoholism... and the say that i sit in the grandstands is bs also. My mother died at 44 from liver failure and jaundice caused by drinking. I watched her self destruct for the early part of my teen years. My sisters are alcoholics and one has had a heart valve replacement becuase of it. I told her if she didn't stop drinking she would never see any of my children, becuase I wouldn't subject them to a drunk.

She died before I could carry out my promise.

To say on one hand that it is a disease , then to tell me to take at face value what someone says who is so afflicted is alos bs. You can't see the forests for the trees in your own life. By calling it a disease, they've given you an escape route. You don't have to take responsibility for your actions; you can always blame it on the 'disease'.