I don't know what other people think but if alcoholism is a disease or not is not, I think, relevant, what is relevant is the damage it does to your body. I was a drinker for 27 years, fortunately mostly beer, but also took some of the harder stuff. I stopped because the hangovers were killing me and frankly I had severe liver pain after a spree. I stopped drinking 10 years ago and some 5 years ago I had a brain MRI (I'm not sure if that's the correct abbreviation), anyway I had a lot of small lesions and supposedly they were caused by alcohol. I really don't know if that's true but it is possible. And the social consequences are terrible, I don't even want to think about the things I did while drunk. Now I am not trying to make anyone quit, drinking is nice if you do it moderately but for me it was really drink until I couldn't remember how I got home.