We have never called alcoholism a disease because, technically speaking, it is not a disease entity. Bill Wilson

Bill Wilson addressed the annual meeting of the National Catholic Clergy Conference on Alcoholism in 1961:“We have never called alcoholism a disease because, technically speaking, it is not a disease entity. For example, there is no such thing as heart disease. Instead there are many separate heart ailments, or combinations of them. It is something like that with alcoholism. Therefore we did not wish to get in wrong with the medical profession by pronouncing alcoholism a disease entity. Therefore we always called it an illness, or a malady—a far safer term for us to use.”

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