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Comment by alexilliamson | Hacker News Reader

It's also great for people who have alcoholism

I don’t agree with either of these characterizations. It is not a disease because the cure comes instantly by a decision from within. It is not a moral failing because the substance subverts moral reasoning. I am not religious, but I find the religious view to be accurate: a good soul fallen, that needs to be saved.

Source: a lifetime of addiction in my family and loved ones. Some made it out. That transformation is astonishing. Others didn’t. When you think it can’t get any worse, it can. It’s made me realize that we are all addicts. There is always some void in life that becomes deeper by the behavior used to fill it. Everybody.

I'm sorry, but I sincerely question your understanding of addiction, the program, those closest to you if you genuinely believe "the cure comes instantly by a decision from within." If this were true then chronic short term sobriety followed by relapse wouldn't be so common.

My impression is reinforced with, imo, your trite "we're ALL addicts" platitude. Yeah, we all get distracted sometimes and get hung up on the bit of cleaning. That doesn't mean we all have ADHD and OCD. There are ways to establish a middle ground without downplaying legitimate disorders.

Almost certainly, anyone who calls themselves "alcoholic" should probably give Alcoholics Anonymous a try. However, alcoholism is not a disease and AA isn't the only answer.

You left out the phrase "in my opinion" from your very strong opinion statement that alcoholism is not a disease. You could qualify your opinion, such as "in my professional opinion as a psychologist", or "in my layperson opinion through my experience with people who believe they are alcoholics". Or even better perhaps "in my opinion as someone who thought I was addicted, I solved my problem this way...".

Try harder.

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