Alcohol is a strangely bewitching drug for some people. The story of the drunk who is the last to understand he is, in fact, a drunk is as common as diner apple pie. Lives fall apart, shedding their layers like a wilting rose. All of your friends see it happening and the good ones confront you. But for some strange reason the alcoholic cannot see their addiction for what it is.
Taking personal responsibility for the behavior is indeed the best way to go. And, admittedly controversially, I believe the ways in which we go about getting people back to good health are flawed. Too often there isn't enough focus on the types of things you've said here, Mr Berwick. Understanding that drugs don't really make a life, that they are inhibitors who's "good times" come on a line of credit. And like all lines of credit, interest is due before you can pay down the principal.
I am also concerned with the notion that a person is helpless before their behaviors. I do acknowledge that addiction is not a one size fits all proposition, but I find it profoundly anti-humanist to suggest a person must be a slave to something even in recovery, which is what so many cessation programs teach. The message inherent to that methodology is that you're not worthy, you're not able, you're not good enough. Given that so many people come to this state of affairs because they have something missing in their lives, because something has become so painful that they must medicate to feel well, how terrible then to further attack that soft spot in their hearts when we should be building them up!
And I'm here to say that ANY man or woman who has the courage, self awareness, and frank honesty to admit they have a problem IS good enough, IS worthy, IS able! I don't promise ease, but nothing worth having in this life is attained easily. But that hill belongs to you if you have the will to climb it, not the other way around.
Here's to you, Mr. Berwick, and to a better life for everyone with the courage to reach out and take it.