I agree--it's a choice and it's also not a choice. It's not a choice when you are young and take a drink because everybody else does, having no idea you are an alcoholic. Choice gets taken away swiftly. It's why alcoholics should talk to their kids about the risk of having alcoholism. I have issues with eating that began when I was six. It wasn't a choice; it was the way my body metabolized carbs. Much of alcoholism boils down to genetics--it runs in certain cultures and has a big link with starvation and famines. The Irish and Native Americans are much more prone to it. Genes get turned on to react differently to alcohol (and sugar). It can make people with primary alcoholism extraordinarily vulnerable to any alcohol in any amount ever, and that's a tough tightrope to walk without self-knowledge.