Addict chimming in here!!! I did not intend to get addicted to my drug of choice infact I never thought in a million years that I would be a drug addict. I thought I wasnt like all the "other" addicts. I never touched street drugs well pot I guess. I hated coke, heroin, x, crack you name it I hated it.
Then I started having chronic pain and my Dr trying to help me gave me some pain killers. I often wonder if he would have told me how addicting and how these could "possibly" take over your life, would I have filled that prescription? Well I filled it and I knew I was hooked after taking my first pill, that high, that sensation, that euphoric feeling I loved it, I craved it, I wanted to feel it again and again. Yet some others can take pain killers and they dont get that feeling.
Research has been done that some addicts lack a certain chemical make-up so they dont get that natural high that others get. So once we take the drug it releases that feeling and we like it so much that we keep taking the drugs to keep getting that feeling. I dont know if this is why it fits in the disease catagory. People with diabetes need insulin cause their body doesnt produce it. Just like addicts whose bodies dont produce the chemical that others have.
There is recovery out there and people do get clean and stay clean its seen all over this board. Is there relapse yes there is but there is also a sober life out there too. We can never loose hope that one day addicts will see that there is life outside of that feel good feeling that in the end you need more and more to feel it just takes over your mind/body/soul.