> That is just not the reality though. You make a choice.

Brains are fascinating. There is a choice being made every time someone with gambling addiction goes to gamble or someone with a smoking addiction goes to smoke, but that doesn't mean they're not experiencing addiction/withdrawal distorting the ability to make that choice in a healthy fashion. Some people do manage to quit smoking by just making a decision one day to stop and sticking with it, with no assistance whatsoever; that doesn't mean they weren't experiencing addiction/withdrawal. There are, in fact, mechanisms that encourage addictive behavior, ranging from social media use to alcohol to food to MMORPGs. Not everyone who uses those things, even to excess, has an addiction. But some do. And breaking that addiction is laudable, whether with or without assistance.

I'm going to change one word of what you posted:

> I realize people are trying to make over opiod abuse into some sort of addiction. It makes it easier to not blame the person and absolves them of all personal responsibility for their condition - they just can't help themselves, don't ya know!

I change one addiction to another addiction. If people find the above distasteful, I agree, but my question is why do you believe one thing for food addiction and another thing for other addictions?

Can you acknowledge your own bias in condemning people who don't achieve the same thing you have achieved? Can you acknowledge any advantages you may have had that made it easier for you to succeed in this particular endeavor?

This is not about that. This is about why you consider some bad habits are addictions and some others are not. I don't know, maybe you are right, but you haven't provided any beginning of an answer yet.

Rather, you sound like you would be saying that "quitting alcohol is merely a question of personal choice" if you had struggled with alcohol rather than weight.

I think the best example here is compare the crimes people commit to get burgers and the crimes they commit to get fent.

Right, or you can just own up to the fact that you do not have discipline and are indeed making detrimental choices for yourself. That alone is transformative, accepting responsibility.