LetsGoPeay wrote:nick wrote:i wish i was holier than thou like you guys.
everyone has demons
You're missing my point. Cancer is a disease. Alcoholism is self inflicted.
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune diseases. In humans, "disease" is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, and/or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person. In this broader sense, it sometimes includes injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts and for other purposes these may be considered distinguishable categories. Diseases usually affect people not only physically, but also emotionally, as contracting and living with many diseases can alter one's perspective on life, and their personality.
Death due to disease is called death by natural causes. There are four main types of disease: pathogenic disease, deficiency disease, hereditary disease, and physiological disease.
So by reading this, I see what you are saying Peay. If someone dies of alcoholism, they would not say that it is of natural causes.
It is an addiction and I understand that once a certain point hits, the person that is an alcoholic doesn't even realize they are doing it anymore.
I have a buddy that went through this.
He would drink so much and so often, it became the norm to him. He had no idea what he was doing.
So I agree that at first, it is self inflicted, but at some point, the serious cases, turns to something else very similar to a disease.
But I think that the one line above explains how the general population use the term disease broader than the medical field does:
In humans, "disease" is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, and/or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person.
And your comment about if you dont want to be an alcoholic, stop drinking, it is not that simple for some people.
That is why I understand, after seeing my friend go through it, how some people could call it a disease.
