created with a vacuum that one drug or another can fill. Goes back to high school, the party buddy who always got roaring drunk when the rest of us were just getting mostly drunk. And when most of us were ready to be sober to study for the exam, the buddy.managed to get roaring drunk. All this to saythat it is a lot more complex than bored or lonely, etc.

Hell, even in bands where drugs were everywhere, there's a subset of players, how are just wired differently. 4 out of 5 of the members get high constantly at the myriad of parties, yet they show up ready for the studio session the next afternoon, The 5th though can't manage it without doing a line or having a shot or drinking half a bottle. Eventually that member OD's to death or gets kicked out due to dysfunction. The others usually simply dial it down to be husbands and dads in their 30's. I honestly wish I understood it all better as I have no end of relatives on my dad's side. My dad was an alcoholic. His father died as a alcoholic in a mental facility---I never even met him.

When I was young, I partied really hard and really young. I figured I had a problem. So I went on the bandwagon in my very early 20's to function. I only started drinking very lightly after my second marriage 10 years ago as my wife's family is comprised of social drinkers. When I took my first wine order at Ruths (I did not have my black jacket on so I didn't look all that snazzy), I was on full alert for addiction problems. I was in my 50's. Fortunately, I don't have a problem at all. I don't consider my "control" to be a virtue. It just isn't hard to control it. It isn't that I'm somehow strong while my addict brother (fictionally speaking) is weak in character. It's just that the hard wired crave is absent in me by some greater Grace or luck.
[Post edited by Shenhoo at 12/18/2021 11:07AM]