Hey,
Thats a nice take on the social factors of addiction. Another factor worth mentioning though are the effects of social defeat, which is also a serious health risk. This goes back to learned helplessness models, where animals such as mice and dogs were conditioned to accept electric shocks. If you exposed them long enough, the animals would learn that avoiding bad circumstances was futile. In a similar sense, addicts may learn that they will always be an addict due to the stigmas in their envoironment.
Also do you know the rat park experiments conducted by Bruce Alexander?
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Thanks for taking the time to read my post and provide some feedback. Excellent point on the learned helplessness, could definitely have included that in the post. Even the family members of addicts can be affected by this as they come to believe that there's just no hope- the person keeps relapsing, etc.
As on the rat park experiment, thanks for sharing the link. I haven't actually seen it and it raises some good points. The importance of social isolation and feelings thereof are interesting. Thanks for taking the time to comment, always appreciate an outsider's insight. Also, I learnt something :) thus I am thankful for you popping in.