They do everything to maintain the illusion that all is well with them. Second, our insistence on seeing ego and world in stark opposition engenders isolation and fear. Addicts chronically suffer from both these negative experiences. In order to maintain their state of illusion about themselves, they have to cut themselves off from others, and this inevitably creates fear. Third, in our addiction to the rational consciousness and its countless props we believe the myth that we are really powerless to do anything about it.
Addicts typically feel disempowered.
The object to which they are addicted seems to them bigger and more powerful than their will. Similarly, stuck as we are in the lop-sided worldview spawned by the rational consciousness, which tends to discredit other forms and states of consciousenss, we do not believe that there is anything we can do about our situation. As addicts of the rational consciousness we do not believe in a universe that is inherently benign. We refuse to consider that the world we live in is actually comprised of the kinds of dimensions of reality that religions and spiritual traditions talk about. We disallow ourselves the possibility of inner or spiritual growth, because our view of human potential is limited to the capacities of the rational mind, which is viewed as the finest product of evolution.