Well stated. I am a recovering alcoholic with close to 14 years of sobriety. One aspect of alcoholism/addiction that confounds and breaks the heart of loved ones is the misperception that alcoholics have no will power. To the contrary, an alcoholic's will is strongly inclined to indulge their addiction. Incarcerated prisoners will smuggle fruit out the dining hall in their butt cracks to ferment in their cell commode. Soviet pilots and their ground crews would conspire to report icing conditions in flight so that they could account for de-icing fluid they siphoned off on the tarmac to drink. These are the actions of people who are strongly and desperately inclined to get drunk, not those of tepid will or weak resolve; the problem is that the will is pointed in a self-destructive direction.
For me, recovery and relief only came once I recognized that there was a fundamental flaw in my will, and became wiling to subordinate my will to God's will, and that it was God's will that I keep away from my addiction.
You can find well-credentialed academics, physicians, shrinks, addiction specialists, therapists, etc. on both sides of the nature vs. issue. For me, hopping on either side of the issue is a non-starter. If I come to believe that my alcoholism is genetic, that I was, "born that way," then I have a perfect excuse to keep drinking and can justify the behavior as simply part of who I am, down to the genetic level. If I let myself believe that my alcoholism is learned behavior, then I can easily convince myself that I can unlearn it, modify my behavior and drink responsibly. I know better from experience.
Indeed, I don't spend a lot of time (any time, really) contemplating the genetic vs. behavioral aspect of my alcoholism, as either would sooner or later lead me back to the bottle. My recovery did not begin until I began to understand and deal with it as a spiritual malady, and this is where I need to keep my mind, my heart and my soul.
I have seen enough lives destroyed my drugs, tobacco, and alcohol to know that the addicted have very little free will. I’m watching a close relative die of liver disease right now from drinking. he’s 55 years old. He probably won’t see 56. cigarettes killed my mother at 56. I have seen two heroin overdoses tonight in my ER. I have seen numerous people that I grew up with OD and die. It’s all poison AFAIC. The dealers should be taken out to the woodline and shot and left for the vultures.