Psychiatric disorders are not diseases. Addiction is a mental illness and a mental illness is a disorder, not a disease. Personal responsibility is needed in life, and with the user choosing to pick up a drug they take on the responsibility of being a drug user.
If I drive fast and crash my car on a consistent basis does that make me a diseased driver?
If I eat pasta 12 times a day, soaked in butter and salt, does that make me a diseased eater?
If I binge watch Netflix to the point were I can't hold down a job does that make me a diseased employee?
"Personal capital is closely related to personal responsibility, when personal responsibility is defined as a person’s “response-ability,” that is, the ability of a person to maturely respond to the various challenges and circumstances of life. Personal capital is also closely connected with character, when character is defined as a person’s moral or ethical quality, and the character of a person gives them advantages to respond to the challenges of life. Personal capital, then, is the inner resources, assets, and advantages of personal responsibility and character that one brings to the challenges and circumstances of life. When personal capital is low, a person is a victim of circumstances, at the effect of life and not able to consciously and purposefully choose his or her own thoughts, feelings and actions. Victims typically identify themselves based upon attributes of powerlessness, dependency, entitlement, apathy, worry, fear, self-doubt, and the like. The victim lives at the effect of what happens around them and has little personal capital to, in response to the challenges of life, choose and direct life’s direction and destiny."
Dr. Frank Thomas