1. Addiction doesn't have to be debilitating to be harmful, or to cause someone to need help.

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.

3. The phenomenon of the word "addiction" being thrown around so commonly these days might be because the scale of the problem is just that big. 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?

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.

But it's a perfectly good word to describe everyone.