Is Alcoholism a Disease?

I’ve thought about this for a long time and had many debates.

Is Alcoholism a disease – and if so, can it be cured?
I would say: yes. And no.

Gabor Maté says: Addiction is neither a choice nor a disease. It’s an attempt to solve a problem that is rooted in trauma.
Yet we judge people for trying to solve a problem – for desperately trying to escape emotional pain, isolation, and inner emptiness?

Addiction is not the real issue.
Addiction is a symptom. A survival mechanism.
It doesn’t show weakness or moral failure – it shows pain.
A person doesn’t drink because they’re “bad” – they drink because they’re trying to save themselves.

I firmly believe: Mind over body.
No illness appears without reason. It’s trying to tell us something – pointing to a place where we’ve lost our way. Something inside us out of tune. A scream we’ve ignored in every other possible way. Until the system has no choice but to shout: pain. Addiction. Collapse.

Alcohol addiction is such a cry for help.

When we change our awareness, we change our experience – maybe even the illness itself.

But – and here comes the big but:
Even relatively small but regular amounts of alcohol start to change the brain.
Many of these changes are irreversible.
The brain learns how to drink – and it doesn’t unlearn it.
Like riding a bike.

Especially with alcohol dependence, the brain changes so deeply that even after years of sobriety, a relapse can quickly trigger complete loss of control again.
I know: if I ever drink again, I’ll be right back in the same trap.
Not because I want to. But because my system remembers.

Alcohol was my escape.
That warm, soft blanket that kept the cold wind out. It makes the voices calmer. It takes the edges from all the emotions. The negative ones. But it also takes your Ambitions. The Ambitions to want more from life.

So maybe it’s not just about being sober.
Maybe it’s about loving myself – and my life – so deeply
that I no longer want to escape into any other state at all.