Alcoholism is a self-induced BEHAVIOR that can become an addiction. The medical/pharma/insurance industry has promoted alcoholism as a disease so that insurance will cover rehab. Think about it.
Measles is a disease, cancer is a disease, TB is a disease, bubonic plague is a disease.
How is alcoholism contracted? By self-indulgent behavior.
Alcoholism is contagious, however. It infects the alcoholic's friends and family who are required to take care of the "patient"—support them financially when they get fired, clean up after them when they puke, bail them out of jail, waste their own lives otherwise taking care of the parasite.
Alcoholism has been used legally to excuse vehicular homicide, violence, wife-beating, child abuse....
Then, there is the "recovering alcoholic".
The recovering alcoholic stops drinking (maybe), joins a support group (AA) to help them stay sober and to reinforce their pride in the great sacrifice they have made, sit around with other recovering alcoholics making excuses about their previous behavior, tell funny stories about their drinking days, intoning the AA mantra, and turn their life over to a higher power.
It seems to work. AA has saved a lot of alcoholics from continuing to drink. Continuing to attend AA meetings reinforces their abstinence.
But... The hypocrisy of AA is the "Anonymous" in Alcoholics Anonymous. There was nothing anonymous about their boozing. Are they ashamed of their sobriety?
Then, there are the family and friends of recovering alcoholics. They are required to continue to take care of the ex-boozer to prevent relapses. They're encouraged to join subsidiary groups like Ala Anon, Adult Children of Alcoholics... But guess what. Those groups use the same 12 Step programs and serenity prayer as AA. The implication is that the friends and family caused the problem in the first place and are still responsible for taking care of the recovering boozer.
The moral of this story: No one is responsible for the behavior of another. No one can change the behavior of another. They can only change their own behavior.
See also 12 Step Program for Sociopaths