1. Addiction doesn't have to be debilitating to be harmful, or to cause someone to need help.<p>2. Calling someone addicted is not disrespectful, degrading or disempowering. If they are diagnosed (or even self-diagnosed) as addicted, then that is a mere statement of the situation, and shouldn't carry an emotional payload. Mixing emotions into this is pointless, and doesn't address the real problem.<p>3. The phenomenon of the word "addiction" being thrown around so commonly these days might be because <i>the scale of the problem is just that big</i>. It's not a far-fetched hypothesis - at what other time in history have we had so much money being poured into addicting our bodies, hearts and minds as totally as possible, with a successful outcome?<p>In short, I disagree with this article completely. I think we are more addicted than at any other point in history, and we should do something about it.