ABC News

It happens to the wealthiest of families -- Casey Johnson, an heir to the Johnson and Johnson fortune, battled drug addiction. It happens to the most political of families -- former presidential candidate George McGovern cut off his alcoholic daughter, Terry, who later died at the age of 44 after falling into a snow bank and freezing to death. And it happens in Hollywood -- Martin Sheen's son Charlie Sheen arrested for cocaine use.

Almost 2.5 million women are alcoholics. Many of these women are busy juggling families and careers -- all while hiding a dangerous habit. Health Specialist Denise Dador takes a look at how these"cocktail moms" go from happy hour to addiction. A deadly wrong-way crash in New York last summer shoved the issue of alcoholism into the national spotlight. Police say, Long Island mother Diane Schuler, was drunk when her minivan plowed into another car, killing Schuler and seven others.

Change, especially changing bad habits, is hard -- and rightly so, as any neuroscientist will tell you. Advances in neuroimaging have enabled researchers to peer inside the brains of addicts and patients with addictive behaviors. They can see, in real-time, what gets patients hooked: how the brain's reward system -- based largely on the neurotransmitter dopamine -- thirsts for more, while inhibitory control centers experience a system failure.

Experts say mothers are masters at keeping their addiction secret: hiding bottles in toilet tanks, diaper bags and sometimes filling baby bottles with vodka, or whiskey that passes for apple juice. Some even wrap booze in butcher paper and hide it in the freezer. At Father Martin's Ashley in-patient treatment center in Havre de Grace, Maryland, nursing director Charlotte Meck told ABC 7 that mothers are the least likely to seek help, because they are afraid to leave -- or lose -- their children.

Janet Jackson told ABC that her family was not naive about Michael Jackson's drug problem, saying that she reached out to her brother throughout the years, but was unsuccessful. "I did," she said. "Of course, that's what you do. Those are the things that you do when you love someone. You can't just let them continue on that way. And we did a few times. We weren't very successful. I felt that [Michael] was in denial."

You may identify with the rats in a new Portuguese study. When exposed to daily chronic stress, they soon became lousy decision makers, relying on habit instead of actively thinking about whether to press a lever to get a food pellet. Sound familiar? The stresses we face are different -- morning traffic, unsympathetic bosses, the recession -- but over time they get to us.

Michael Jackson's Death Adds to the List of Pop Icons Who Battled Prescription-Drug Addiction - A look at celebrities' public and private bouts with prescription-drug addiction, and their untimely deaths. ABC News

Actress Marlee Matlin opens up about her past in a brand new memoir. Matlin's book, "I'll Scream Later." [excerpt:] "I am as close to broken as I've ever been. We head out into the fading light for a fifteen-minute drive that feels endless, the one that will take me to the Betty Ford Center."

An estimated 5.3 million women in the United States drink in a way that threatens their health, safety and general well-being, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The effects of alcoholism on women are just as devastating, if not worse, as they are for men. Women alcoholics are twice as likely as non-alcoholic women to be depressed and almost four times likelier than male alcoholics to be depressed.. Then there are the heart and cancer risks

There are conflicting views about addiction and popular treatments. So, we talked with researchers, psychologists and "addicts" and asked them: Is addiction a choice? Publicity about addiction suggests it is a disease so powerful that addicts no longer have free will. Lawyers have already used this "addict-is-helpless" argument to win billions from tobacco companies. Blaming others for our "addictions" is popular today.