the Disease

Boston AA's name for addiction itself — not a habit or a moral failing but a patient, cunning antagonist: "They identify their whole selves with their head, and the Disease makes its command headquarters in the head" (p. 272); staying stopped is "nothing short of a daily miracle if you’ve got the Disease like he’s got the Disease" (p. 344). Ennet House's Eugenio Martinez figures the Disease as the Spider (see that entry).