Addicted to OTC (in the UK) painkillers

What a load of crap. This isn’t addiction, it’s just the ordinary, expected withdrawal syndrome found in many people who have developed resistance to a short-half-life analgesic.

True addicts have a hard-wired compulsion to take massive doses, due to a dysfunctioning learning process. What this guy had was discomfort phobia induced by frequent drug withdrawal. Repetitive pain simply drives most folks a little neurotic. That’s why he was right as rain after a couple of days of stoicism training and a course of benzos.