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It is far too simplistic to say that an alcoholic or an addict "likes" what they are doing. There is a vast difference between "liking" and being addicted. I knew a man in my ex boyfriend's AA group who had managed to stay clean and sober for 5 years. This man then had a relapse and out of his despair over this, put a gun to his head and shot himself. He hardly "liked" going back to the sentence of hell on earth that using alcohol imposed upon him.
Alcoholism has been classified as a disease for the past 60 years. No one wakes up one day and says to themselves, "Hey, I think I'll go out and destroy my life and have a miserable impact on the lives of those closest to me by becoming an alcoholic. What a great idea! Why didn't I think of it sooner?"
Alcoholics and addicts are certainly great rationalizers when it comes to reasons why they continue to drink or use. This denial is part of the disease. An alcoholic who can actually state, "I drink because I am an alcoholic," has made a great step toward recovery by finally admitting that he has the condition.
Frankly, I think it is a mistake on the part of the courts and the medical profession to court order AA or rehab. A person forced against his will into such programs merely becomes "treatment wise" and spouts the appropriate jargon to probation officers and medical workers in order to get let off the hook and be free to go use again.
The people who walk into the doors of AA or NA of their own free will do not do so because they "liked" what they were doing. They come into a 12 Step program beause they hate the compulsion they have to drink or use and are desperate to find a find a way to stop.
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