| While the vast majority of those who demonstrate such behaviors are found to be active substance addicts, I have observed that some are not. A few are newly sober. Many have been in recovery for months or even years, but risk relapse. A terrific example of this was a case in which a client of mine, whom I knew to be a recovering addict, was belittling and subtly disparaging his girlfriend during an appointment with me. A few days later, receiving his permission to be very frank, I told him that he appeared to be on the verge of relapsing or had actually done so, as evidenced by his attempts at inflating his ego at his girlfriend's expense. After five minutes of denials and excuses, he finally admitted that he drove to a bar later that day but had not "yet again" taken that first drink. He (and the rest of us) got lucky: the service at the bar was so poor that he had time to change his mind before being served. He left and went to his first AA meeting in weeks.
On other occasions, I have found these behaviors, signs and symptoms of addiction in persons having close relationships with addicts. Several times, I have tentatively identified addiction in a spouse, only to subsequently learn that it was the other spouse. The co-chemically dependent person ("codependent") can so mimic the behaviors, that the codependent may exhibit more destructive behaviors than does the addict. This is particularly true in terms of appearances to outsiders, since we can't see what goes on behind closed doors.
Your score also means that 100 out of 100 times, the cause of the bizarre, destructive or unethical behavior has proven to be something else, such as a psycho-pathological disorder. Bear in mind there may be great difficulty in distinguishing between the chicken and the egg, since addiction mimics virtually all the disorders and mental illnesses. It is impossible to know whether there is a true disorder until any substance addiction is arrested. Even then, it may take several years of sobriety for the alcohol/other drug-induced behaviors to subside. Without blood tests, we cannot know that addiction does not exist. Since our minds are not courts of law, it is safer to presume that there is substance addiction until we have fairly good proof that this is not the case. Oftentimes, I have seen proof of addiction emerge months or even years after first suspecting it.
Regardless, you need to act. Attempting to prove that addictive use of a substance exists, either in the person under scrutiny or in a spouse, child, parent, coworker, etc. of this person, is warranted. If the person being considered is not an addict, s/he needs to be informed that s/he may be in a committed romantic, familial or working relationship with a practicing addict. Measures to protect yourself from the ravages of addiction should be taken. These include separation of your finances, as detailed in my book. When appropriate, a professionally-aided intervention should be undertaken.
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