So basically you're saying addicts are born, or created, and their fate is sealed that they will grow up to be addicts? They have no choice in the matter?
Depressed people have no choice about their thoughts, addicts have no choice in seeking out substances and becoming addicted to them? Not sure I buy that.
Some don't. It literally consumes their thoughts. All they can think of is getting that next drink into them. No matter the cost. That's why you see homeless people on the streets begging for change and instead of getting a bite to eat, they go to the nearest liquor store and get the cheapest liquor they can to get drunk again.
Okay, let me try to boil this down. You know how depressed people have no choice about their thoughts? How they can't seem to get out of that spiral of dark thoughts that cripple them? Well, that's what an alcoholic is like. They can't control that impulse, that part of their brain that says, no don't take a drink, you're addicted and it's leading you down a dark path - it either isn't there or it gets overruled by the part of their brain that is so overwhelmed with the need for alcohol.
Some depressed people are able to seek interventions through therapy and counselling. Others seek anti-depressants and other drugs to regulate their moods and thoughts. AA meetings, counselling, rehabilitation centres, these interventions can work because they can get someone clean and teach them how to cope in other ways and how to find a way to fight those impulses. But for some people, it doesn't work, they can be clean for a long time and relapse. It can be a life long battle.
I would be very surprised if someone on this forum wasn't directly impacted by alcoholism in some way, shape or form. So, I think any discussion where we are actively criticizing someone who actually had the wherewithal to seek treatment for something like this, is a dangerous thing to do.
Some of it is ignorance and not knowing any better. Some of it is being willfully ignorant and disrespectful. In this case, Frank, I understand where you are coming from and I don't think you are being malicious at all, and I think you are trying to learn a bit more about it. Whereas Vlad and Blackstar are continuing their character assassination and doubling down on ignorance, being very combative about the subject.