I think addiction is a learned behavior in a way.. I know that I never, ever had a healthy relationship with alcohol. But someone had to actually tell or show me "drink alcohol = get this desired affect". If alcohol is not inherently addictive, then what causes some people to become addicted while others can have it occasionally in moderation? I think somewhere along the line, we got the message that alcohol would fix what was wrong with us, or that we needed to use it to fit in or be cool. It's environmental. So in a way, some of us can be addicted immediately, in the sense that the first time we reached for alcohol we already viewed it as a direct path to what we wanted.