Alcoholism

If we are going to give alcoholics a pass with the genetics excuse I guess we can give everything a pass with it.  A child becomes a businessman because his father was.  A child becomes a gang banger because his father was.  A child starts smoking because one of his parents did.  Children that were molested usually become gay. 

People must be held accountable for their actions and stop trying to blame it on everything else but themselves.

Non sequitur. Also, no one said that genetics are 100% to blame, just that they're a factor.

I went through a phase of alcoholism. For me it was a comfort, something to deal with depression and the fact that my life was going nowhere at the time.

It took a little while for me to stop seeing it as an escape from reality and start enjoying a good drink, but I got there in the end, and it wasn't too difficult either. I'd say it wasn't strictly a choice (I felt driven to do something to make myself feel less terrible, and alcohol was the only way I knew how) but nor was it entirely involuntary (I knew exactly what I was doing, and I did it anyway).

Genetics have nothing to do with it.  If you grow up with an alcoholic parent(s) then that is the norm for you.  Children more often than not grow up with their parents world view.  If we are going to give alcoholics a pass with the genetics excuse I guess we can give everything a pass with it.  A child becomes a businessman because his father was.  A child becomes a gang banger because his father was.  A child starts smoking because one of his parents did.  Children that were molested usually become gay. 

People must be held accountable for their actions and stop trying to blame it on everything else but themselves.

Acknowledging that there is a chain of causality from one effect to another is not giving people a 'free pass' it's facing the reality of the situation and actually trying to put an end to the cycle rather than perpetuating it.

An alcohic can become an alcoholic through a multitude of different routes. Once we acknowledge that we can look at how best to deal with that particular alcoholic, is it depression? Chemical? Peer pressure? Lack of self-esteem? Once we know the cause we can help not only the alcoholic but other people who are in similar positions.

Shrugging and saying 'people have to take responsibility for themselves' doesn't help solve the issue.

Alcoholism is much like being obese. Bad choices which may be coupled with a poor environment/situations for stopping those choices. Both are destructive and prey on weakened minds.

Its one of the few preachy things that Trey Parker got right in Southpark - season 9 episode 14 ... Bloody Mary.
http://www.allsp.ch

Alcholism isn't a disease.