What is Addiction? - More Intoxication Experiences
Summary
(From Chapter 2, p. 37)
“This is the world of the alcoholic, very real to him or her, but totally artificial, a chemically created delusion. Alcoholics take it to be real when it's not real at all. The experience is so powerful that they can't see the reality - that they are just drunks, people who are increasingly obsessed with drinking. Sober, the alcoholic is just waiting to enter that world again.
It's important to understand that alcoholics have no understanding of this process. They can't observe it and decide whether or not to go along with it. They have been infiltrated by it and undermined from within.”
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Remember though, they are not helpless: even though they are chemically deluded, they can choose to recognise they have a problem, they can choose to get help, and they can choose to do what is necessary to recover. Then they can find their own personal miracle and become a normal caring person.