It's anecdotal of course, and correlation doesn't equal causation and all that, but the people I'm close to who seem to really have addiction issues seem to be people who had addiction issues a priori.

e.g. I can't even conceive of a scenario where I could find myself thinking about willingly even trying heroin or cocaine. But I have a few family members and (former) friends with addiction problems so severe that pounding a case of beer before snorting lines is what they call a normal Thursday afternoon and heroin is considered a weekend recreational sport. Something predisposed them to the notion that this was a valid idea whereas I can't even conceive of it.

From my observation and knowledge over time I think your statement "prone to addictive behavior to begin with" is correct.

That said I'm not reading what you are saying the OP is possibly suggesting at all.

He says:

"One of my relatives, for example, managed to get herself off of drinking and smoking completely and was in counseling. The addictions, and the kinds of behaviors that come with maintaining addictions (all kinds of dissociative, anti-social, manipulative weirdness) were ruining her life. Strange thing was, after removing the substance, the behaviors persisted."

I don't see anything that suggests that the initial addiction caused further addictions at all in the above paragraph.

>Strange thing was, after removing the substance, the behaviors persisted.

This part. Seems an odd thing to say if you knew the person had addictive behavior before... perhaps I'm misreading it.

How would you know if they had an addictive personality if there wasn't a pattern of addictive behaviors?

Often, these things start at such a young age that it's impossible to separate and find cause and effect.

I thought the suggestion was an addictive personality causing the initial addiction and also subsequent ones.

I find this like saying that other people might have addiction problems, but you don't have the personality so you can take it or leave it.

>One thing that I've noticed is that even when they get off of the substance, the addictive personality traits are still there -- years later.

The OP can chime in, but your interpretation (which I considered) doesn't seem to fit what I just quoted.

I can't say whether the addictive substances caused the addictive personality traits or vice versa, but it's definitely a facet to consider.