How Does a Person Become an Addict/Alcoholic

                I don't subscribe to a religious hell and damnation type of evil.  I'm not sure, given all I know about the different types of mental illness, that any person can be entirely evil.  Their actions can create evil but they are probably a mixed bag of illness and personality disorders.  Addiction is veiled, seductive and pure evil. I have seen this evil in the empty eyes of thousands of alcoholics and addicts as I attempted to enlist their help in the battle for their souls.  That's what it feels like to me.  Most addicts and alcoholics are creative, intelligent, willful, and strong.  How do these wonderful people end up sniveling slaves to their addiction and empty shells of potential lost?
               At the outset, the user feels good.  They wake up the next day and all is well.  Nothing noticeable changed but they have a new friend. The substance (insert alcohol, cocaine, heroin, oxycontin here) made them feel GREAT.  ECSTATIC. All angst gone.  They became the person they knew they could be.  Up to now, everything in their life that felt this good was generally good FOR them.  Sleeping when you are tired, eating when you are hungry, a big hug when you are sad or lonely. It feels THAT good.  How could it be bad? It feels so good.
                 And so begins the slow slide into addiction.  It can take years in some people to manifest, or it can take months.  But if you are on the slide, you are in.  Rationalization allows the user to keep on.  Did I mention just how good it feels?  There are those peaceful feelings it brings.  But things start to go wrong.  Lost the job because he can't get up in the morning but the user thinks that it was the boss's fault or, they surmise,  it was a job that they didn't want anyway.  Lost the girl/boyfriend because they cheated/peed the sheets again/got physically abusive, but the user thinks that it was the other person's fault somehow.  "Next time, I won't mix drinks", "He won't smell it, I'll drink vodka", "Just tonight, it's my birthday for chrissakes".  The user tries to figure out how to keep their beloved substance, their only true friend in their life, and minimize the damage it does. And so it goes. The rationalizations, unbeknownst to the user,  start to get thin as the damage accrues. The user can't see that the addiction is sucking up their soul, and creating mental and physical scars that may never heal.  It doesn't feel that way.  It actually feels numb at this point.  No high highs but no low lows either. Just numb.  No spontaneous feelings.  After years of numb, spontaneous feelings become threatening and scary.  Numb becomes good.
                 All the user sees is the external damage. Then one day the user decides they should stop.  "I can stop anytime I want to."  " Next week, I'll stop." "After the holidays, I'll really stop."   But by then they  have crossed the invisible line. They are the last to know.  Family and friends, if they are still around, are shaking their heads, praying for the person, hoping and wishing that the slow death will turn around. Loved ones do not have the "break from life" that the addict/alcoholic has when they use.  Loved ones feel everything.  The addict/alcoholic now feels nothing.
                 If the user stops, the mental and physical symptoms are torture (insert the evil laugh of addiction here).  Just a little of their substance relieves the suffering that is unbearable. The user is addicted.