But that's not how it really works. Not everyone who uses once does it again and again. Many people are able to control themselves. I'll give you tel examples.

But that's not how it really works. Not everyone who uses once does it again and again. Many people are able to control themselves. I'll give you tel examples. First, alcohol. Alcohol is an addictive substance so are you telling me you can take 100 people, give them alcohol and then expect 95/100 to come out addicts? Of course that won't happen. But a few will and those few are predisposed because of either genetics or some underlying cause like depression or poor coping skills. Now let's take substances out of the equation because addiction isn't necessarily about substances and it'll help to get people thinking about this differently. Sex and gambling are addictions. A person isn't addicted to the sex or the gambling itself but from the brains natural reward system being set off each time a person engages in either. Now we all have sex but not all of us are sex addicts. Many of us have lost more than we cared to part with at a slot machine or a card game but we don't all become gambling addicts. Put 100 people in a situation where they have easy access to those two things and even if all 100 partake only about 10 will come back uncontrollably. The statistics show 10% of the population are predisposed to this. This isn't like lab rats where you can expect all of them to become addicted and that's because the one thing that separates us from them is our big prefrontal cortex. That cortex works perfectly in 90% of us which is great because 100% of us are exposed to situations where we get a big dopamine boost from taking some sort of action. If we didn't have that we'd all be addicts acting on animal instinct. It's a myth that taking something once will make you an addict. Well, it's true and a myth. It's true in that no one knows if they're one of the lucky 10% who are predisposed to this and will wake up, take another and end up like you say. But from a statistical point of view it's false for 90% of the population. Your description of taking it once, liking it and going back for more is accurate but it only holds true for a small number of people and doesn't take into account the different factors that play into what really makes an addict. It's far more complicated than that.