>>>>>>>>Don't know if this helps... hopefully it sparks an idea. It seems when you get in this state you post a lot about music. I know when I get depressed I sit in a dark room for hours and listen to music, reminisce, and spend hours on the web and that can't be healthy.
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>>>>Do you consider drug dependencies a diesase?
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>>>Asking for simple response along just one dimension might not be adequate even if ONLY asked about some of the complex behaviours grouped as alcohol dependancy. See Charles' answer for some of the factors involved just from metabolical side.
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>>>Classifying it as disease (even though diesase can happen) for me is nothing but a way to decide who is footing the bill, and sometimes a legal cop-out (which in almost all cases is wrong from my POV, but I can't change it).
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>>>And for me realizing there is an affinity/proclivity to use some substances more than the norm which SHOULD form the basis for a "disease" definition. In day2day life of a person it should not result in it being used as an excuse, but as a motivation to copy/change behaviour/hack yourself. Also realizing a) that people have their ups and downs and b) that falling off the wagon results in different degrees of damage across people.
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>>We agree completely and I agreed with Charles. My mother died of alcoholism and it was no disease. She was stone sober one day, started drinking and was dead in 3 years from liver failure. 1/2 gallon of vodka a day.... She was running from herself; blaming herself for my father's death in an accident. that's not disease, that's a choice. She chose alcohol over her 3 grandchildren, who she never got to see because she was stone drunk all the time and I feared for their safety in her presence.
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>>Mike likes that clinical diagnosis, because he can use it as an excuse. "I can't help myself, its a disease". He tries to gain sympathy from the people here, but I believe he has cried wolf once too often and nobody takes him seriously anymore.
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>I hope that's not the case. I do not make excuses for my drinking problem or blame it on anyone but myself.

Mike,

You play the "its a disease" card and wear it like a badge of honor. Its listed as a disease in the DSM so that the psych industry can make big money off treating it. If it weren't listed, insurance companies wouldn't touch it and people would have to pay out of pocket for treatment. If you call alcoholism a disease and believe it to be, then the same case can be made for any drug dependency. How about cigarettes? They are terribly physically adicting and there are people who have tried to quit hundreds of times and can't. Is smoking a disease?

This case can be made for myriad dependencies. It all boils down to a physical concious choice to drink, shoot up, smoke a cigarette, commit suicide.... and the list goes on...