Do you think that people can start abusing substances or alcohol

@CountScrofula I was specifically reading about a case where a patient claimed to have had a great childhood and loved his parents. And from what described it seemed like they generally were good loving parents. However he ended up becoming homeless and being addicted to crack.

For me that was very hard to wrap my mind around. I think he has addictive tendencies like you mentioned.

@DeluxedEdition Yeah it's... kinda weird to see how people end up. Like I know how a ton of my childhood friends wound up since we're all from a small town, and a handful of them ended up severe addicts, with an overdose death and a suicide in the mix. I wouldn't have considered any of them to come from horrific childhoods or to have had opportunities denied to them but shit got very dark.

Each one has their own kind of specific interesting story and there's probably been some good academic work on why people become addicts. My dad was basically killed by his alcoholism and although he had a pretty horrible mother, he didn't become an alcoholic until his 40s and I largely blame that on his job and a shitty coping mechanism.

@CountScrofula I had a very similar experience with my classmates growing up as well. It's extremely sad because a majority of them were really good kids growing up and I think they got caught up trying to be cool or whatever

I did also notice that I think certain jobs contribute to substance abuse and alcoholism. So I do find it interesting you would mention that.