Haha man well I don't know, I think for most people it's not the rapid-descent-into-the-depths-of-Hell that is shown in pop culture. It's like the dude who lost his money, "suddenly and then gradually". Every experience is individual with some similarities.

You start off, OK. You don't believe in society much. You hated Bush and opposed Iraq and joined Occupy but nothing changed. You think alcohol is a shit drug that makes people angry and stupid while giving billions to corporations. So you have a group of friends who use other things. You never planned to do it every weekend but everybody else in your Midwestern city is just getting shitfaced at bars so it's easy to rationalize. Then you realize hey. Weekdays are stressful too. Maybe your job sucks or you're still in school. So you meet up with a friend or two a few times a week. Helps the monotony pass. Good times are had though the money starts getting annoying. Eventually you are doing it everyday but you don't think about it really. You still think it's less harmful than alcohol and you know people who are pissed 24/7 so it can't be that bad right? I don't think you feel doomed or cursed or like you're heading down a bad road. You mostly just feel stressed out, like, man I just really need a break from all this. But the only break you can think of is a substance binge, and each one of those is less enjoyable and by now the money has seriously added up.

So IDK if that helps at all. Most people are not massive bingers - most chronic drug addicts use to maintain. Maintain various things - sanity, a job, a family situation, a health problem, a lie they've been telling, whatev. The thing about most addictions is that they work, at least for a little while. It feels like you've found the missing piece to life and you're not hurting anyone so why is it anybody's business to interfere? That's why most people don't get help until something bad happens, or they just learn better coping skills. You get arrested, you blow a job, or go through a bad withdrawal for the first time. Or you get a new girl/boyfriend, start school & sports back up, etc. Honestly until this happens it can be even kinda fun? But after this much less so. You only get to turn down so many avenues out of it and the stakes tend to get higher so most people with sense start scaling back their doses or setting rituals around it or just find it too much a hassle and move on in life.