I have been off the booze for 20 or 25 years and I really like being sober. But I still live a sip away from becoming a booze hound again. I don’t know why people keep drinking but I do know what helped me stop and the following song is one of the things that helped me. Cheers! 

Once someone is addicted to something, their brain always wants that thing. Sobriety is a daily battle that takes more than willpower. Imagine that you have a sore on your arm and it constantly itches. You know that if you itch it, it's going to open up, destroy your clothes, and probably get infected. Now, if you treat that wound with an antiseptic and anti-itch cream, it'll usually die down to a manageable annoyance. In fact, if you stay really busy, you can sometimes even forget that it's there.

But, other times, when you're bored, or lonely, or it gets hot outside, the itch becomes unbearable again. If you're aware that you're getting into the danger territory where the urge to scratch it is creeping in, you might call up your doctor again and ask for help.

But, you're human, and so you don't always have that foresight or the doctor isn't available or you don't have the money for treatment. So, maybe you're sitting there one night reading a book, and you reach up and scratch it a little instinctually. Or, maybe you deceive yourself a little. You convince yourself that if you scratch it just the tiniest bit, it won't itch anymore and you won't cause harm. 

But, it does. And, before you know it, you've made a mess of your arm and your clothes and you're wondering... what happens if I call the doctor now? I've scratched it. I've broken the rules. I'm going to be ridiculed. My doctor is going to give me a hard time. My family will hate me. My clothes are already ruined. I can't do this. And, so, you scratch some more because, in your mind, the damage is done and there's no going back.

Addicts must be vigilant because, as Nanoose said, they are only one slip away from falling back into it. Always. And, unfortunatley, our system blames these people instead of helping them. In reality, the average person does slip more than once on their sobriety journey. Statistics vary by substance and by external factors, such as the type of support system they have. Because it's not about willpower. They need tools, medical support, family/ friends, and often medications to stay off their substance. And when all those things are not in place, and that person has an itch, they're going to fall back into it. Whether or not they come back out of it depends on the kind of support they get and whether they genuinely believe that, if they reach out to someone, that person will help and not judge. 

That's not to say people should let addicts walk all over them, but I think it's important to set boundaries while being a beacon of light back to sobriety. Addiction is a disease. Diseases need treatment. People need support.