Paul you assume a lot.......Whilst some people are predispositioned to obsessive behaviour and some have an OCD illness...the vast majority of alcoholics, drug addicts and folk suffering from some other addiction do not....It is physical craving and dependency rather than an OCD. I suggest you improve your own education....cause you have your facts wrong. Whilst a lot of addicts do have psychotic and psychiatric problems it is mostly due to the drug or drink scrambling their brain.....NOT as you seem to think that their brains were not working properly before they started taking the stuff.
JFI I have more experience in this field than you seem to think. I have found that a lot of folk with addiction problems blame anything and everything rather than themselves. I stand by what I said.....Most people who are content, have a job and decent living standards and a high self esteem will NOT turn to addictive substances and use them to block out the real world. As John said folk turn to these things because they are unhappy with their life.....a lot succumb to peer pressure...sorting out the unhappiness before the addiction starts is the only way to prevent it. It is also true that most addicts do not recover and even after rehab treatment around 90% relapse. The addiction rate is on the increase as is the casual or recreational use so there are no easy answers. Condoning it has proven to not work.....lets try zero tolerance. Making getting drunk or getting high uncool might have the desired effect.

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