THE GLOBE’S portrait of human ruin, the life of Raquel Rodriguez, is painful reading. “A life unraveling,’’ Page A1, Dec. 26).

Utterly under the control of drugs, her dignity shredded by her craving, she lives within a nightmare. The experiences of her two children, hostages to their mother’s addiction, can only result in a premature and permanent loss of innocence.

Addictions, however, take many forms. One can go to a barroom to get a fix, another can open the refrigerator door for his or her fix. I can visit my nearby shopping center every other week, for my own. Finally, one can spend one’s life driven by an uncontrollable appetite for money or fame.

While addictions may vary in intensity and consequences, they seem to be an almost universal stigmata.

Thus Raquel Rodriguez, though profoundly injured, remains a member of the human family, as are we all.

Frank Rooney

Newburyport