Alcoholism: A personal perspective

I was having a conversation about alcohol and alcoholism with someone in one of my classes recently, and they made a comment about an acquaintance of theirs who "used to be an alcoholic." I chimed in and mentioned that this person was still an alcoholic, simply a recovering/sober one. They seemed to take offense to this, which I thought was odd. Alcoholism is a disease, and one that will stay with a person for their entire lives. It's not something that can be changed, simply controlled. When I explained this to my classmate, they seemed skeptical, as if alcoholism was simply a result of an alcohol-heavy lifestyle.

I have very personal experience with alcoholism. I'm not going to say who as to respect their privacy, but someone who I'm very close to is an alcoholic. They're sober now, and (mostly) have been for a while now, but I grew up around this person, and know what alcohol does to them. It's not fun to see. Seeing their recovery has been inspirational to say the least, but they are still an alcohlic.

When I talk about alcohol and addiction with my peers, family, or anyone really, I always want to make sure that people understand the nature of alcohlism. The power of alcohol addiction can be severely underestimated; I've seen it with my own eyes. It's important to understand that this a disease - it's simply more self-inflicted than "traditional" diseases. To better fight against this disease, it must be understood correctly.