Addiction doesn't just affect the addict. Everyone in relationship is affected.

An addiction is a compulsive psychological need for something; in other words, something that someone needs to survive. People are usually addicted to a specific substance, such as alcohol, drugs or food. But people can also feel addicted to activities, such as sex, gambling and work. These substances and activities never satisfy, however, because they don’t deal with the real problem. Addictions aren’t real desires. They’re substitutions for some other need of the real self. An essential step in the healing of addiction is finding out the real need being masked by the deceitful desire, and one of these real needs is attachment and bonding to others.