The DSM 5 calls addiction a disorder.
http://www.dsm5.org/Documents/Substa...ct%20Sheet.pdf

Of course just like mental illness it is a very complicated issue. In my case it is highly genetic just as my depression is and I consider it a disease. Depression can have many causes and still fit the definition in the DSM. Is an addictive personality a disease? Its complicated. The disease concept is embraced my more than just AA. It is pretty widely accepted. Does it really matter how the donkey got in the ditch or how are we going to get him out.

I look at it this way. I am not to blame or am not at fault for my addictions and depression but I am responsible. In my view there is a big difference between blame and responsibility in these matters. I am responsible to do something about it.

The psychiatric community explains away 12 step programs as talk therapy because they don't know how to deal with the spiritual aspect of the philosophy. They sure do recommend people go to them though as well as the courts. Because they are proven to work.

You could very well call AA a cult as in it has its own language and culture. The same could be said for golf, or psychology or physics. The key is to focus on the philosophy as laid out in the 12 steps, in the 12 traditions, in the 12 x 12, and in the big book. That is the program. All the opinions from members is take what you like and leave the rest. And you are free to choose if you agree with the philosophy or not or if you can fit it into your belief system. People voluntarily choose to go to meetings and choose whether the philosophy can work for them. No one forces you what to believe. You can define a higher power any way you like or even use the group as your higher power as many do. It is a program of attraction not promotion. AA as an organization does not promote itself. You will never hear an ad for AA. It attracts other members by word of mouth and people sharing their own experience as we are doing here. The whole court ordered thing violates the traditions in my opinion and I don't know how that ever got started.

I am not one that thinks that 12 step programs are the only way. It is a philosophy of commonly held principles, shared by many other philosophies btw, that has a very long track record of working. Some might say I was brainwashed by AA. That is BS. I am a very independent, free thinking, free willed individual and I often don't agree with aspects of AA. I have made them fit my beliefs and figured out a way for it to work for me.

In one sense it says you are cured since the mental obsession is removed.
On the other hand it says you are never cured because the mental obsession can return. The vast majority of relapses result in the person starting where they left off and it getting worse. This is not always true. Its not black and white it is about whether it can work for you.