Maybe not all of us have been close to a drug or alcohol addict, but it’s godawful. Heroin perhaps most so, followed by alcohol, because recovery from that particular mistress just doesn’t work out all the time. Those demons sit hard and deep and knife-edged. And the withdrawals from both will kill you.
Addiction, addicts, hurt always. Addicts mostly always know that they hurt, but not in any real mutational sense that will lead toward real change. It’s easier to continue, after all. That’s human nature. Maybe. It’s painful, and it’s a condition that absolutely no one should pass judgement on.