I guess I agree with Unhoooked to a degree, and here is why.
If you look at what we did in our addiction, ie. cover up our emotions with smoke, look at what an alcoholic does, covers up his or her emotions with booze, or a heroine or crack addict covering up their emotions with drugs. Watch a documentary on any drug addiction of any type, and when the person says why they are addicted...they take the drugs because they couldn't handle feelings of some kind or other along the way and found that the drug of their choice smothered the feelings to make them bearable. Now I don't think its genetic or else it would run in families.
It may be a simple as a character flaw. You notice sometimes how some people are way more emotional than others.
I know I am way more emotional than two of my three sisters, there is one sister who is way more emotional than me.
I think it comes down to how we were taught to deal with emotions, be it by our parents, a teacher, friends or what, we learn these things in our teens, (Notice how thats when we all started smoking) trying to fit in because of our emotional need to feel like we belong, etc.
If we didn't have a role model who could teach us how to release the emotions and move forward, then we looked for a crutch to help hide behind, or something to kill some kind of pain.
Now we are having to learn these very lessons as adults. They are not that tough of lessons but perhaps harder to learn at 16 then now!
So I think emotional issues are the roots of most addictions and in our new society where it seems to be perfectly okay to laugh at other people's mistakes, downfalls and failures, even just at their looks. there will be more addictons come along, as there are no rules in society to help young people deal with the stress anymore. :)
[B]My Milage:[/B]
[B]My Quit Date: [/B]3/5/2007
[B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 147
[B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 3,675
[B]Amount Saved:[/B] $1,550.85
[B]Life Gained:[/B]
[B]Days:[/B] 18 [B]Hrs:[/B] 1 [B]Mins:[/B] 4 [B]Seconds:[/B] 13