If you think addicts are making "choices" in the conventional sense of that term, you haven't quite caught on to the nature of addiction. They no longer have a choice. That's why there are no ex-addicts, just people in recovery. They spend the rest of their lives learning to avoid waking the beast that dwells within them. They very carefully construct lives that keep them away from circumstances where they lose the power of choice.

It's not an easy thing. I have friends who have made it so far, and their struggles were enormous. I have friends and family who didn't make it, and they're now dead. And I know plenty of people who just aren't addictive by nature; they made all the same choices and never had a problem at all.

I get why people don't like this. We all want to believe in the power of will. In particular, we want to believe that the power of our own will is sufficient to the challenges we face. But sometimes it isn't, and if we accepted that, we'd have fewer homeless addicts.