Here's the thing: in the career path I'm in, nobody will accept excuses like "I'm addicted to video games" or "gambling" or basically anything else. The only "acceptable" addiction for which you can get help and not be permanently out of a career is alcohol. If I say "help me, I can't show up to my job because I play Skyrim 14 hours a day", their reaction won't be "oh you poor diseased man, let us spend thousands of dollars helping you," it will be "why is this loser working for us, fire him and get someone who doesn't act like a 13 year old."

Just because other people can't handle alcohol, they get to call it a "disease"?

If I decide to stay home and just smoke pot with a friend all day instead of going to grad school, that's not because I'm an "addict" and have a "disease". It's because I'm lazy and apparently my work ethic just wasn't up to snuff that day.

Do I think that millions of people lack self discipline? OF COURSE! Why do you obesity rates are approaching 40% in the United States? People don't have the self discipline to not be stuffing themselves with cake all the time, they don't have the discipline to exercise, etc.

Of course, I'm not that disciplined myself. But relative to most other people, it's scary. The fact that I can refrain from drinking/smoking/eating all day long every day apparently puts me ahead of the curve already.

Don't get me wrong, some people have personalities that are just more conducive to addiction. But those same personalities are also the ones that aren't going to be conducive to certain career paths. Do you think it would be ok if President Obama had "videogame addiction"? No, for that job you require someone to actually have unshakable self-discipline and a crazy work ethic to boot.