Addiction is something I’ve struggled with immensely

Yes! Finally! Someone who recognizes we're the [i]best [/i]addicts!

Seriously, though, there's no easy addiction. Alcohol presents a tricky problem because of its ubiquity and the culture behind it, more than anything. True, it's everywhere. Grocery stores, drug stores, rest stops, restaurants, recipes; hell, there are near churches built full of the stuff. Rows and rows and rows of promising adventure. It's on planes, in movie theaters, at sporting and concert events. It's in mouthwashes and medicines and flavor extracts. It's [i]everywhere[/i]. Can you imagine driving past a 16-wheeler with a giant colorful add for heroin along its side?

More insidious, though, is the culture that accompanies it. Alcohol is the only drug that people try to convince us will make us stronger, more alluring to the opposite sex, able to enjoy the good life, create power lunches, relieve a workout, ease a heart, gladden a soul. We use it for holidays, gatherings, parties, religious ceremonies. Alcohol is the only drug we're enthusiastically and exhaustively encouraged to indulge in and it's the only drug wherein non-users are shamed or left out if they don't join in. We use it to pump ourselves up, to make ourselves more social, to ease our minds, to comfort our souls, to put ourselves to sleep.

Alcohol kills more than all other addictions combined. That's changing with the advent of the Age of Fentanyl, but it's still true. And yet we still host TikTok channels showcasing those who've had too much, we deny monies to treatment and harm prevention and we use it as an excuse for any number of bad behaviors. Until we get serious about addiction in general, it will always have the upper hand in the Next big Thing to kill people.