Well, I had to stop really, Dave, I was being a complete pain in the arse!
With any addiction its those round about you that suffer the most!
I guess I am lucky because I can take it or leave it. Just choose to take more than leave

I think all addictions have a genetic component to them and/or the addict has some sort of biological propensity to addiction.
During covid I would take a riverside walk to do my food shopping about 2 to 3 times weekly. The weather was nice a lot of the time so on the way back I would sit in the same spot along the river and have a beer and whatever savoury nibbles I purchased. A sort of mini picnic

This was shortly after we moved and I was on the big gardening project so I just wanted a break and change of scene. Anyway I got chatting to this woman at the river, she was a couple of years older than me and it transpired our childhood homes were very close and we attended the same primary school. We also shared the same perception of the teachers which was quite amusing. We exchanged numbers and met up from time to time. But I could tell there was something not quite right. It was as though a huge chunk of her life was missing. Anyway to cut a long story short after about 2 years of knowing her she told me she had been a heroin addict for 22 years! Ended up in a psychiatric hospital. She said in the end she was injecting grams of the stuff every day just to feel 'normal'. I wasn't really shocked when she told me as I suspected there was something in her background. She now has a nice home, lovely daugher, two grandsons and a granddaughter. Amazing that she managed to turn her life around.