"Wolfgang Schwanke" wrote

Addicts get so used to the positive feelings induced by the drug that
they get strong depressions when sober. They need to take the drug
again and again to to protect them from these depressions and to go on
with their lives at all. It's a vicious circle, that's what drug
addiction is all about. The euphoria they originally took the drug for
has long gone.

You are talking about addiction all in a recreational sense.

Prescribed narcotics for pain control are just as addictive, and difficult
to withdraw from, and euphoria is not a sensation that is present, or
desired.

This fact does not make the withdrawal process any less difficult.

There are very real physical sensations that make ordinary living quite
impossible, if the withdrawal of the narcotic is too sudden. It is quite
incapacitating.

That being said, the use of the narcotic is the only thing that makes life
possible, for some people in some situations. Without them, I suspect that
there would be many suicides, because the pain of the subject is so severe,
that any escape from the pain would be considered, including the taking of
one's life.
--
Jim in NC