JeffreyAK

That's where I personally part ways with RR, which is pretty early actually. Addiction is fundamentally a biochemical process, as evidenced by large piles of data for example on brain imaging, and it is caused not by character defects or beasts or pleasure drives, it is brain chemistry altered by the consumption of alcohol itself. Stop the alcohol (this is hard to do, of course), and in time your brain is normal again. This too is evidenced by large piles of data. Certainly by the end of my drinking days, I was miserable, and I didn't drink because of hedonistic pleasure, I drank because the consequences of stopping (withdrawal and having to face the wreckage around me) seemed even more horrible. I'm still puzzled by Trimpey talking about permanent features, that certainly don't exist in most people who don't drink or drink to the point of addiction.