There is something different. And addicts must teach their children what they might have latent within them.
One tendency of many addicts is compulsive behavior with any hobby or task. They go overboard on anything. If they are interested in a subject they go deep real fast, with total immersion and lots of money spent to scratch the itch within them.
Focus and determination are great human characteristics, and few great achievments would be possible without this tunnel-vision approach to a task. There is a thin line between destructive compulsion and positive focus. As an addictive personality, we need to gain the benefits and watch out for the pitfalls.
Many of the most gifted entrepreneurs exhibit "alcoholic" behavior.
One last item-- Free Republic itself is very addictive, isn't it?
Some people have a greater libido than others but that does not give them the right to go out and rape someone or molest a child. There's this thing called, self-control.
I've seen that behavior in some people with addictive personalities as well as Asperger's Syndrome -- a mild form of autism -- also in people with obsessive compulsive disorders.
But note -- none of these have to do with will power. They all have to do with the way the brain is wired.
I think the "disease" debate has to do with the way we define disease. TB is a disease. You can isolate it. Look at it. Cure it with antibiotics. But diabetes is also a disease that has to do with a genetic trait, just like alcoholism.