I've had or am having two similar addictions.

First was during first year of university. I was addicted to video games. I would stay up late, not attend morning classes, and eventually wound up on academic probation, with the threat of being kicked out next fall. With nothing to do all summer but worry about how I'll do next fall, I worried a lot. It was stressful and so I played a lot more video games to escape the stress. When push came to shove next fall, I started playing games again, at least for the first few weeks. I willed myself to focus on school and found it was interesting enough to continue; I became obsessed at the cost of many things to complete school. I succeeded for now I suppose...

Fast forward many years. I was getting interesting, I was socializing, I was growing a lot, I was enjoying so many new things. I disliked alcohol until around 25 because I was too busy, too poor, and/or my body was telling me not to (brain still developing). Now a few years had passed, I'd met someone, we lived together and it was great. Sometimes I'd stay up late and play video games and drink 3 (!) beers in one night; wow a whole 4.5% per beer rolls eyes. So yea, I'd started to drink more, but the vast majority of days were spent not drinking, nor did I feel the itch.

Then the whole relationship stopped working and we both retreated into our own addictions. I started feeling the desire to drink. It made me forget all my problems and I felt great; re-runs of 1970s Doctor Who became awesome; I'd forget the daily arguments and trivia and have a blast. We were just slow in accepting that our relationship was falling apart and over.

But it's been years now and I'm still drinking a lot; it grew after we broke up, and it continued after I accepted everything about the finality of that relationship.

I've always had very interesting jobs and neat hobbies. I am not lacking friends, nor am I depressed, nor do I lack distraction. It's like that feeling of escaping reality with video games. The rare times I'm not drinking more than two or three beers a night is when I'm engaged in a book or a video game, or when I literally will myself to not drink, usually replaced with caffeine and boredome. Tonight I've had four beers, a good night I suppose, but it was because I was playing a video game this evening, preceded by socializing.

So for years now, I've been attempting to control this addiction. If I don't drink, I feel the itch and I might spend a day, a week not drinking, but it's always there now. This is only a question of will power at this point.