i apologize for the delay, as i would like to think deeply before i respond..so forgive me if i have kept you for some time..so let me continue to elaborate if you will..

let me address the first question as far as behavioral addictions....i suffer from BPD and it's quite severe, i won't say it is a behavior addiction but instead a personality disorder, the trauma and experiences in my life have manifested itself in this affliction..some factors i could control others i could not, nonetheless here i am.

i don't suppose i could honestly say that i was/are/am addicted to anything at this point or even then, though i engaged in some reckless behavior( i don't deny that..i accept full responsibility for my actions and their outcomes)

i believe many of my actions were indeed "acting out" if you will.. during times of stress, unhappiness and instability in my life at the time.

i will say that the master key system by charles hanaal helped me immensely
and showed me a great many things about the world we live in and how we create our own realities. metaphysics is one of my favorite subjects and i am an avid student indeed.

as far as the incidents i was involved in, it depends on the opinion of the person you ask. i don't drink too often anymore..here and there moderate would be the best answer, i had 2 drinks last night and that was all. the previous day i drank nothing. before i quit, i drank "balls out" quite a bit.
i no longer have a desire to drink like that. i don't use anything else other than cigarettes and i'm strongly considering quitting again this week..my plan is to let this pack i'm on now be my last.

so lets get to the inability to make proper choices...this is a matter of self control at its core, this is why i believe the master key system is so powerful..it teaches a lot about self control..self mastery. this i believe is at the heart..the core of all of our problems & it is very difficult. a wise man once said "it is easier to control a kingdom than it is to control one's self"
that is a powerful statement and a very true statement. at the moment i have a measure of self control..but not where i used to be..i can get their again..this is why i know i can quit.

so the inability to make proper choices is a two part answer and to get to the core we must be totally honest with ourselves.

1) part of the inability is a lack of knowledge(tools) this is primarily a environmental factor..how you grew up,the people you hang around,what you have learned and internalized as a child and carried over into adulthood.
in laymans' terms in this instance we don't know any better.

2) the second part is a lack of desire.." i like getting high", "i don't want to give that up'", "i like the way it makes me feel" , "this helps me cope", " i love drinking" etc. all of us have an inherent since of what is beneficial to us and what isn't, what we don't already "understand' we can deduce from the phenomena of cause and effect..well i did x and y happened..i didn't like y..so if i don't want y to reoccur i need to stop doing x.

so now the question that begs to be asked is ..well if y keeps happening the why do some people continue to do x? correct?

some do, some don't the consequences are perceived to not be great enough to inhibit this type of behavior, that is the short answer.

so when i say choose to walk away that is the short,simplistic ,logical answer.
if you put your hand on a hot stove, it hurts you don't do it again...it is the same principle with different circumstances.

self control is not something that is taught in any great detail anywhere on this planet, yet it is one of the most key elements to a satisfying life..in school they teach us calculus and trigonometry which of course is something i use every day