Children addicted to video games ran away from home in the middle of the night to find WiFi when parents turned their internet connection off, says expert::Children have been found sitting by the front door of random homes, desperately trying to tap into the owner’s WiFi connection.
Addictions are, by definition, mental. They are also complex and multifaceted phenomena with myriad causes and expression.
I’m sorry that you felt failed by society. I hope things are better now.
For me it was that I didn’t have the information I needed to process what I was feeling and deal with what was wrong. I didn’t have the language to even describe that something was wrong.
I know many others in my situation that ended up with worse coping mechanisms in the same circumstance. Heavy drinking and drug use is common in the community.
That said, addictions can be physical. There’s a reason you have to ween people off of certain substances because withdrawal can kill them.