The husband of a friend of mine was a successful executive in a fiercely competitive business for about 25 years while also using heroin daily. You could have described him as ultra-high-functioning. Then, some things went wrong in his life not directly related to smack, he spiralled, and ended up losing his job as well as his wife divorcing him.
It’s all fine until it isn’t. I’ve seen that with alcoholics as well. Call it addiction or not, but my definition of it is that, if you get sick when you stop, you’re addicted. That’s also the clinical definition. It’s not behavioral. It’s about what happens when you stop. This guy’s using a behavioral definition instead.
The husband of a friend of mine was a successful executive in a fiercely competitive business for about 25 years while also using heroin daily. You could have described him as ultra-high-functioning. Then, some things went wrong in his life not directly related to smack, he spiralled, and ended up losing his job as well as his wife divorcing him.
It’s all fine until it isn’t. I’ve seen that with alcoholics as well. Call it addiction or not, but my definition of it is that, if you get sick when you stop, you’re addicted. That’s also the clinical definition. It’s not behavioral. It’s about what happens when you stop. This guy’s using a behavioral definition instead.