Yes a person technically choses to drink. When we're born our parents hopefully raise us to the best of their abilities and in an environment that encourages us to feel our emotions instead of avoiding them. When somebody can't cope with their emotions, they build up until a point where they must be felt or they require something else to keep them in. People who are completely unable to deal with their emotions will NEED alcohol or drugs. It's not a want or desire, but an effective survival mechanism. It's sad that addicts are often seen as selfish escapists when they may simply have the emotional capabilities of an infant. I think most of us have trouble dealing with emotions but those with addictions have the greatest difficulties of all. While addicts have much to deal with and changes to make, at least we are forced to learn how to cope if we hope to get through the addiction. Those with less dramatic emotional problems may be able to get through life without changing but will never be completely happy.
So yes, in the end it is the alcoholic who puts the drink to their mouth and continues to do so despite the consequences, but I guarantee that this decision along with most others are made by the unsconscious without knowing it. The experience is what we have to use to develop the tools we should have gotten elsewhere. Use the carefree drunkeness to put you in a state of mind where you can think about your problems more easily instead of blocking them out even more. Use the difficult situations your addiction forces you into (which happen for a reason), to learn things you wouldn't have been able to had you not been an alcoholic. We're given the opportunities to learn, but will most often have to find the tools for this on our own because our society refuses to accept that something as evil as addiction is a learning experience
It's fair to say that somebody is responsible for the actions of their addictions, but addicts can't be blamed for their inability to cope.
