Prelude to my statement:
Personally I am a bit of a control freak so I had difficulty understanding "addict" behavior. As a kid I smoked cigarettes (for over a year) but quit when I wanted with no withdrawal issue. Drank a lot of whiskey and bourbon in my early twenties without getting to a point where I needed it and quit without issue when I decided I had enough.
I realize many people know a lot more about addiction than I do so I am just sharing my personal observation, I am sure there are plenty of things I am unaware of and my perception may be wrong to someone with credible experience in helping people over come their addictions. But this is what I observed with one friend:
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A friend of mine whom has had major issues with addiction stayed with me a few years ago. He has had crack, tobacco and alcohol addiction. and was in AA while he stayed with me. What I observed was that alcohol and crack were addressed with regard to his recovery, but tobacco seemed like an "acceptable" crutch he could continue with. This was nothing new to me as I had seen it before when supporting other friends over the years, and noticing when I picked them up from AA there would be quite a few outside smoking after the meeting had ended.
But with my friend that stayed with me I noticed that behavior kind of ruled his life, he also (in my unprofessional opinion) had an addiction to Sugar. If he had no cookies, ice cream or soda, in the house and it was 10pm or whatever time, he would badger me to take him to the grocery store because he could not wait till the next day. If I refused (usually because I was in the middle of a
poker game online) he would walk the 5 miles to the store if I did not promise to take him after the game ended. Taking him was not an issue for me but the need and urgency he felt for these things surprised me and I simply realized I have little true understanding of addictive behavior. He was not comfortable unless he could drink a 6 pack of Diet Pepsi a day and need to have some kind of treat available at certain times of day, so we made sure to keep the house stocked with these things instead of stressing him out by not having these things easily available to him.
So when I see a question like this, I think it is possible to get addicted to poker, depending on the person and how wide spread their addictive behavior is. Again I realize this is just one person and that does not dictate how others respond, I just have to believe if I observed it in one person, its likely effecting others like this too.
