How we crave drink after drink, even though we know we will feel awful afterwards, is a lot like not being able to resist scratching a mosquito bite, even after it has started to bleed.

Although the analogy has been used before, The Mosquito Bite, on Neftwink’s Blog, describes the urge particularly well.

‘The problem with a mosquito bite is that although the initial scratch usually feels really good, the itch comes back. Scratching only exacerbates the itch. . . Our bite never goes away and the itch, that we aren’t supposed to scratch, can be consuming. Drinking relieves us, temporarily, of our itch. And like scratching a mosquito bite, the more we drink or scratch, the more our bite itches.”