David Sheff wrote “Beautiful Boy,” to be published in February by Houghton Mifflin Co., about his son’s struggles with addiction. And though the emphasis of the book appears to be human resilience in the face of the harrowing beast that ruins lives, even Starbucks Entertainment President Ken Lombard acknowledged in his formal statement that addiction is, indeed, an “epidemic.” The fact that Sheff’s son apparently came out the other end of the horror is great. But the reason the book will sell is that “epidemic” part – the fact that there are so many others out there experiencing addiction right now. (The two elements are intertwined, I realize.)

It’s something I’ve observed for many years. We are an addicted culture. The substances we can’t stay away from aren’t always illegal. Sometimes they’re not even understood to be bad for us. Sometimes the substances are seemingly benign, like food or work. But it’s not the substance itself, anyway, any addict knows – it’s the underlying reason we “need” it. (And there’s a reason that word “need” is in quotes.)

Not to sound like I just stepped off the set of “Leave it to Beaver” or anything, but as our culture becomes increasingly fast, gotta-have-it-now, gotta-have-the-world-at-my-fingertips, gotta-have-the-remote-controlled-Internet-access-everything, we get more susceptible to the beast of addiction. From a sociological perspective (remember, I said I love that phrase!), that’s another column for another forum.

I guess the bottom line of my observation today is that addiction is much more widespread than we realize. I’ve always felt that we as human beings should be better educated on the nature of addiction, and where it truly comes from. And the popularity of books like these just reminds me of that.