I think we're getting stuck on the term "disease".

Some would consider addictions, shyness, shell shock, tourettes, and poverty to be diseases.

Others would consider a disease to be something like AIDS, Measles, Leprosy, or a burning case of the clap. If you look with a microscope you can see bacteria or a virus or something. If you get it on you, you can get infected. If you eradicate it from the body, you are cured.

I fall into the second group of people. When someone says alcoholism, smoking, kleptomania, or obesity are diseases, I find myself thinking "how can it be a disease when it's a behavior?" Do germs make you crave french fries? If gambling is a disease, than could laziness be a disease? Is child abuse a disease? Is aging a disease? Is that guy covered with tattoos from head to toe because he has a disease? How can someone who hasn't had a drink in 30 years still be sick today?

I blame the doctors for confusing things. If I break my leg, I have a medical condition. That doesn't make it a disease. If I cut myself intentionally or fear shoes, I have a mental condition. That doesn't make it a disease.

I have no doubt that alcoholism is a disorder, a condition, whatever; but when they classify it as a "disease" they're rubbing my paradigm the wrong way.

Of course I don't have any alcoholics or doctors in my family, so I guess I'm double ignorant.