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A disease is a negatively abnormal (pathologic) change in the functioning of an organism. This change can be the result of any disease process (etiology). By this definition, alcoholism clearly is a disease.

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This ignores the possibility that alcoholism might be a symptom of some other disease. This is an important distinction for two reasons. First, if someone is "cured" of alcoholism, but the underlying condition remains, the "true cause" may continue to have an undesirable effect. Second, if alcoholism can be viewed as a symptom then correct treatment may depend on the nature of the underlying problem.

An example would be sore throats. To treat alcoholism alone is like giving someone with strep a painkiller. It may eliminate the "problem" (temporarily), but the disease remains. Also giving a person antibiotics just because they have a sore throat is definitely not justified, because a number of things may result in a sore throat - treatment could include antibiotics, antihistamines, or just plain waiting it out (among other things).

Personally I believe the compulsive element of addiction exists in everyone. It's just a mechanical thing. An addict, to me, is usually someone with an emotional problem that they can only cope with using some specific behavior. The need to deal with this problem overrides any desire to stop the behavior, and that is where the addiction itself comes from. Addiction can be overcome by handling the original problem, thereby removing the "need" for the addictive behavior. (Physical addiction is something else, of course)