It’s a disease insofar as some people lack the genetics producing enzymes needed for efficient breakdown of ethanol, making for an objective difference between those prone to debilitating addictive effects vs. those who can imbibe & metabolize with minimal consequence. Hence the “prone to addiction” via broadly-defined “disease”. Walking away, for some, is hard because they’re biologically susceptible to physiological loss of control.
Of course, this does not excuse the choice to make the step over the cliff. Too often the arguments polarize one reason against another, when the reasons are in fact symbiotic.
Meant to ping you to 93.