Quote Originally Posted by Filled Rolls View Post
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I've read quite a lot about illness as well. It's fair to say that there is mixed opinion. It's a matter of doing the scientific thing, and looking at the evidence.

There is no evidence that it is a disease, other than the subjective opinions of some doctors. A profession that has failed woefully to make any headway in treating the pseudo illness they invented.

Doctors would like to call it a disease, so that they can then treat it. The fact is it meets none of the criteria whereby you can call something a disease. Probably the reason there is no medical intervention that has worked.

There is no drug that can cure it, no surgery that can cure it, there is no bacillus or virus or physiological malfunction that can be shown to cause it. Yet doctors still say its a disease.

Tells you a lot about doctors.

At the end of the day it's about responsibility and choice. If someone rapes a six year old when they are drunk, do they have an excuse. If someone crashes their car during an epileptic fit, do they have an excuse.

People need to get away from using medicine a reason for their badness or stupidity. Saying Gascoigne, or any other drunk, has an excuse, is like saying they are possessed by the devil.

Society has more to worry about than cleaning up the wreckage of those that will not take responsibility for their actions. The medical profession is creating more illnesses every year, using science as a justification, yet failing to provide any scientific evidence.
Fair enough, I'm not an expert and your post raises some very valid points with regards to it being a disease, I am only basing my opinions on what I have read on the subject of it being a disease, I have never really looked in to the counter argument. It's quotes similar to this one that I have often read and accepted:

“Alcoholism is a primary chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. The disease is often progressive and fatal. It is characterized by impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking, mostly denial. Each of these symptoms may be continuous or periodic.”

I will now look at the counter argument in more detail