It's one of those things that are different for everybody. Like Esmer said, at some point you make the choice. If it's a disease of any kind, (which I still dispute), it's one that you can choose not to activate, feed or generate.
A genetic predisposition? Absolutely. I'll go with that any day of the week. But a
predisposition doesn't mean you
have to be an addict.
Having a genetic predisposition to cancer doesn't mean you already have the disease.
Now if anybody knows about genetic predisposition, it's me.
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
As some of you know, my father is an alcoholic. My brother followed in his footsteps, and is a heroin addict. Me? I continue to drink and do recreational drugs with no ill effects.
But I can see that predisposition in myself incredibly clearly. If you doubt me, look at my post count. Or check the Games forum to find out how hooked I get on the PC.
And yeah, I've felt it when it comes to substances. Nearly 10 years ago, I realised that if I didn't stop doing coke right then, I might not be able to, and after realising that, it was 5 years before I even did a single recreational line. (Whereupon I discovered that, although I still liked it, I would never go through the mission and expense of doing it. If somebody offers me a line, fine, otherwise, I can easily live without it.)
Actually, there's my own little blessing/quirk when it comes to these things...if I don't have it, I don't miss it.
(Only ever blacked out once in my life, and that was a combination of things. I'd taken a few trips the night before, and if you drink on acid, alcohol doesn't seem to have any effect. Then I followed the trips the next morning, (not having slept obviously) with about a bottle's worth of vodka, with orange juice, for breakfast, then we headed out to a friends plot (like small land-holding?) in the bush, where there was a bottle of rum for lunch, first mixed, then neat.
The problem with drinking on acid though is when the acid wears off, the alcohol hits you like a ton of bricks. The last thing I remember is talking somewhat incoherently about the Kabbalah, then I woke up 4 hours later and 100kms away in my friends driveway. Nasty.)
--A