#i really like this book and gilda writes it wonderfully

[a-beautiful-crow]

He [Dr. Forest S. Tennant, Jr.] says that addiction is a chronic, relapsing disease. Addiction, he says, is something that happens to otherwise healthy persons. This opinion is shared by Dr. Nils Bejerot of the Karolinska institute in Stockholm. Anyone can become addicted, he says, if he or she is given enough of the addictive substance over a long enough period of time. And the stronger the substance, the quicker the addiction.

Holders of this theory of addiction focus on the substance as the cause of the addiction. The alcohol, heroin, or caffeine is seen as the crux of the problem. According to one expert, drugs are "inherently evil chemicals that grab a person by the throat, throw him into the gutter, and hold him there."

Very recent findings back up the idea that genetics, or heredity, may have something to do with certain kinds of addiction. ... An inborn quality, according to the genetic view, may predispose a person to some particular kind of addiction or substance abuse.

Individuals who had major disturbances in childhood, especially in the satisfaction of basic needs, often abuse substances. This has led some experts to see addiction as a psychological disorder.

-Addiction: Its Causes, Problems And Treatments by Gilda Berger