I get sick and tired of people throwing the word “addiction” around, just for anything or any product which people like to have habitually. Real addiction involves serious and potentially fatal withdrawal. Real addiction involves ever-increasing tolerance and usage. Real addiction involves a reverse relationship between serum levels and cravings. Real addiction involves serious, and potentially fatal, systemic changes within the body, as the body adapts to the ever-increasing usage. Real addiction involves serious, and potentially fatal, behavioral and mental changes.
Real addiction is tragic and frightening. Habits, whether they be junk food, shopping, or, yes, smoking, can be devastating, but they are fundamentally different things. And, unlike addiction, habits are broken through self-will alone, since the physical systems and mental processes are changed only superficially, if at all. By contrast, with addiction (real addiction, not habits-gone-wild), the person is so fundamentally changed, both physically and mentally, that it is no longer a question of self-will alone.
As a food service professional I saw a lot of both.
/johnny
You have obviously never experimented with Cheetos. :-)