The individual addict displays many different characteristics which would indicate the possibility of a predisposition. She believes that society functions with the same characteristics as the individual addict. When I look through this lens I understand that addiction is a systemic problem inherent in the way our society, our communities, our families and we as individuals function. When we hold a world view that we are powerless in a powerful world, addiction becomes a way of coping with the pain of that.
Addiction can come in many forms, one of which is substance addiction.
There are, however, other addictions, commonly referred to as process addictions. Two that come to mind would be workaholism and perfectionism. Technology addiction seems to be coming to the fore. As families and communities, however, I feel strongly that we need to become aware of the ways in which our society behaves addictively and look for the moments in life where change is possible, rather than believing that change can never happen. We need to look at the systemic problem and then at the individual problem of substance abuse which becomes a way of coping with an ailing society.