Reply #17: Once an addict

[chefgirl]

Always an addict.

In all seriousness, I've had direct experience with deep down addiction. A very close member of my family has been battling this demon for years.

What I've learned is that addiction is in the person to begin with and the drug (or the activity, etc...) is just an outward manifestation of that addiction.

To be sure, there are drugs that cause physical addiction within the body, but its the people who are predisposed to addiction who end up being the ones who have the worst time beating it.

Many times they will simply transfer the behavior to some activity which is percieved as otherwise healthy, or at least, not self destructive. The people who do this are usually the ones who find it fairly easy to 'kick' the physical addiction to a drug (like Bush says he did with alcohol) because the real problem is not external, but internal.

I have no problem believing this idiot could be obsessive about a lot of different things. Bicycling, religiosity, world domination, etc...

-chef-