We live very much in a society where addiction is no longer about the will to resist temptation, but how much we ask of it in the process of finding true satisfaction. My question therefore, asks if there is such a thing as being that bit - just ADDICTED?

There are two main points to addiction in my opinion, which are seemingly buried deep within our psyche as people. The first and most important is that anybody who finds themselves at the mercy of addiction, is more than likely suffering from low self-esteem. This is evident when addiction takes complete control over everything we do as we unconsciously grant it full permission to dominate our existence. Suffering at the hands of a different fate through external forces with little thought to the real consequences just to feel normal, is far removed from the original plan GOD had intended for us, I'm sure. Although there are much more subtle addictions available for which, some of us are not even aware controls our lives – these are sometimes more frightening than the more obvious forms of entrapment. The second is that unfortunately there will always be low life dirty rotten scoundrels, lurking in the background, eager to profit from someone else's misery.

These are the two basic facts about addiction and as hard as it appears to be, the truth always hurts.

So, exactly what types of addiction are there available for us to unwittingly sacrifice our souls for? I have composed a few examples alongside my opinion in the bid to understand the curse that our society has become victim to.

DRUGS addiction: My train of though stems from a memory of a Star Trek episode concerning a spieces called The Gem-Hadar. They were enslaved by their so called Gods with the desperation to consume a substance simply known as 'White', in order that they didn't die, sound familiar? Just how far is fiction removed from reality? The storyline ended more or less when six or so were stranded elsewhere, unable to survive without their beloved drug, they thought they were going to die. But they didn't. Going back to their homeland to set the rest of their race free, they were stunned when the others refused to believe their miracle in the making and the hierarchy had them killed off anyway.

Unfortunately drugs still prove to be one of the most dangerous of all addictions available to those who seek out its pleasures. We have all heard of the life of rock and rollers in bands and on tour and in particular well known people who have had to battle the evil of drugs. I found it interesting that Aerosmith frontman Steve Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry, back in the 1970's were given the nickname of the 'Toxic Twins' due to their rampant use of drugs (and alcohol) both on stage and off. The nick name referring to the 'toxic' combination which almost ended their careers and although they cleaned up their act they are sometimes still referred to as this twenty-five years later.

There's a whole list of British actors and actresses renowned for drug abuse and offences. Daniella Westbrook famously lost the septum of her nose and appeared on several television shows much the worse for wear, alongside celebrity nobody Tara Parma-Tomkinson – Who? Exactly. A children's presenter for the BBC Richard Bacon was famously sacked from Blue Peter in 1999 after the newspaper caught him in the act of drug abuse.

Soul singer Witney Houston's career spiralled downwards when she became involved with drugs; many put this down to the meeting of her husband Bobby Brown. The list is sadly endless…Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Robert Downey Jnr, Tommy Lee have all hit the headlines. These of course are people in the public eye.

If celebrities can't refine from the temptations of drugs then what hope is there for our average Joe's? I wander just how many people are actually in the grip of this infectious disease and that if anybody took the time to count them all up, just how shocking would that end figure really be.

Films for which, portray the evils of this addiction are 'Train spotting' 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' and 'Blow' and anybody thinking of walking down this abusive path of vulgarity really need to rethink the worth of their lives, even if it seems impossibly bad at the time without drugs.

In the mean time drug rehab centres are profiting from people trying to come clean alongside the ones who got them in that position in the first place – the dealers. All those who still don't understand that we live in a dog eat dog world, need to seriously reconsider their place in it!

ALCOHOL addiction: This is much more subtle than drugs because alcohol isn't illegal but it should be. I can certainly understand how someone may get addicted to this substance because it's easy to get hold of when your underage and it's cool to get drunk when you are experimenting with your social life, during your early teens and twenties. Infact, if you didn't get absolutely hammered every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night then there was clearly something wrong with you and if there was a bank holiday then bring it on! Oh my poor kidneys. This new fad which hit the 1980's with a passion lead to grave warnings of binge drinking and how dangerous this seemingly social commodity really was in the cold light of the day. The day-after- the-night-before hangover was simply a reminder, rather like that of a post-it-note to yourself, to never go that far EVER again. However, most of us out grow this irresponsibility by the time we reach our mid-thirties, when all we want to do is settle down and have a family and maybe down the odd glass of vino (not bottle) or can of ale after a hard day at the office. However, some continue and this is when the addiction really bites you up the jacksy.

Apparently whilst visiting a relative in hospital, a nurse was talking to me about the drunks that regularly visited her in her work place. She said you can't die from 'Cold Turkey' withdrawal from drugs, although you feel like you are dying at the time, but you can from alcoholism. She was actually writing out a prescription for a resident for 'White Lightening Cider' as we spoke. Crazy I know.

Alcohol abuse is probably the first thing we turn to when life seems difficult but what a lot of people don't realise is that this particular drug attaches itself to how you feel at the time of consuming large quantities of it. If you are happy and on a night out to get 'smashed out of your face' then it will accelerate this abundance in ways that are magical. However, if you drink to lose yourself in the depths of a bottle through despair it will pull you further down with potential hazardous consequences if your will is already low. And that's why alcohol is gravely misunderstood.

Celebrities who have battled with the booze are Mel Gibson who in 2006 was famously stopped for drink driving, whilst being literally tossed in the can his behaviour became unbearable and alas headlines were made when he made anti-Semitic remarks. Britney Spears went off the rails after the break-up of her marriage to Kevin Federine in 2006 and proceeded to find comfort in a bottle and this time it wasn't water. She dramatically cut off all her hair in 2007 and has apparently checked herself again into another rehab in the bid to straighten herself out. Angelina Jolie's father john Voight and Diana Ross have both admitted themselves to be long-term suffers of the disease and again the list is endless.

Just goes to show you can have all the fame and money in the world and still be searching for something else?

The film I really think really portrays the terrible pitfalls of this liquid diet are 'When a Man Loves a Woman' it actually makes me cry every time I see it.

FOOD addiction: This is my area of concern and one for which, is virtually impossible to control because you have to eat to live but not live to eat.

This addiction stems from excessive behaviour found within the ghastly All or Nothing syndrome. Anorexia's don't eat. Comfort Eaters eat too much (my problem) and Bulimics do a bit of both with the added bonus of a sore throat.

My trouble in particular is all those delicious additives they pump into the things we are warned to keep moderate towards – fast foods, sugar and salt and all things for which, satisfy my desperate need for instant gratification. The after effects are none too savoury – flatulence, acid indigestion, good old-fashioned gut rot, bad skin to name but a few. There are laxatives on the shelves to help release your constipation and all sorts of things to cancel out your diarrhoea! Weight clubs gladly take your money each week and secretly jump for joy when you gain the pounds and the glossy magazines only help to rub more salt into the wound – as they unashamedly parade size zero models like the devil wearing Prada. I mean please give me a break will you!

The television is filled with programmes like Fat Club, The Diet Doctors and so and so's guide to healthy eating, but what they fail to mention is that the whole nasty business of food abuse stems from more of an inner perspective than any external issues.

What really baffles me with this category is that it's a fact that exercise comes hand in hand with weight management and the old adage of calories in calories out depicts how much you can eat before cellulite takes your whole body hostage. But the bigger you get the more sluggish you become and if you have ever gone to any weight class and held that 5kg of potatoes you really do feel as if you are carrying them everywhere you go – and that's just on your left leg! Believe me exercise is last thing on your mind – it's hard enough walking my two dogs round the block! .

Yet food addiction is a problem for which, can be controlled and has to be if other ailments such as diabetes, stroke or heart attacks aren't to get to you first. There are foods on the list that are ok and can substitute the naughty things but no way are they the real thing and in the end unless your attitude changes then diets will forever be a yo-yo way of living.

I particularly loved the fact that I had witnessed some actresses gain more than a few pounds – until they managed to lose them all again. Kirsty Alley from Cheers fame ballooned to a huge size and even made a comedy series out of her misfortunate called 'Fat Actress' but she obviously wasn't happy because she looks stunning now in her new slim line version of her former self – but for how long? The recently deceased Anna-Nicole Smith had a similar story – apart from the whole comedy series thing. Some however, believe that her death was actually contributed in some way to her dramatic weight lose, as it was suspected that she got to the stage where she barely ate. So you see this addiction truly is the most evil if we are to believe that story.

The films I particularly associate to this addiction are 'Shallow Hal' because in a way over-eating is something darn right repulsive and in a world ruled by vanity, this only reinforces the dilemma where real beauty is trapped deep inside – unexposed and sadly hidden. On the flip side 'The Karen Carpenter Story' portrays the side effects of Anorexia - that being death.

Deep down I still pray that one day I will be able to kill off my 'hamster ways' (fill both cheeks up syndrome) for good, so that I can once again view food in a more moderated way with a kinda mutual respect. Until then I will continue to listen to my Paul McKenna tapes of self-hypnotises, without falling asleep, in my bid to find my self-esteem as a person inorder to feel whole again - so that I can be free of the constraints of my obsessive addictive behaviour.

To summarise, there are many more addictions than we care to realise or can ideally begin to find a cure for. For some it's work as in a workaholics thrill for continuously living life in the fast lane. Religious fanatics who spread the word with conviction that their GOD is the only one to save them, when the end of the world is neigh. Internet cruisers who choose virtual reality over human contact 24/7 at the detrimental risk of their physical well being. Love addicts who jump from one relationship to another in their desperate need to find the perfect mate, which simply doesn't exist. Exercise devotees pursuing that all consuming adrenalin rush that no chemically enhanced drug could ever give them, sex addicts who constantly look to their next orgasmic experience and as their desire deepens so does their perversity, smokers who light up their cancer stick in the bid to saturate their blood with nicotine ... the list is frightfully endless and rather worrying.

The absolute truth about addiction is that as we continue to nurture these bad habits our immune system develops a certain tolerance towards them. So the more we adhere to them the more we need to fuel ourselves with them, inorder to satisfy the same level of experience we are used to. This is why when drug users come out of prison clean and take the same dosage they have been used to prior to their confinement, they instantly die from a massive overdose. I know this feeling with food for when I've been strict for a while and then 'fall off the wagon' and indulge myself within 'the mother of all cream infested all inclusive fudge brownie caramel dessert for two', I've collapsed with a bloatedness that had surprised the living daylights out of me --- reaching for the bottle of Gaviscon as if my life depended on it!

I understand more than anyone the demons some of us as have to fight and it really saddens me because I feel so helpless. Addiction is and has always been a personal battle and one for which, can only be fought alone and yes from the inside out.

I'm left wondering just what exactly is missing from our lives to substitute it so easily with some form of addictive behaviour and I'm still none the wiser. But what I have discovered is that unfortunately there never has been nor never will be, such a thing as being a little bit - just ADDICTED.

I always say that I'm a Numerologist by Trade but a Philosopher by Nature and within this article I approach the delicate subject matter of addiction and the misery it causes throughout the world with no easy cure.

Karen Foster
http://www.astrostarnumerology.co.uk