>>83839346He was losing control of his life. One of his oldest friends got kicked out of the Avengers and beat his wife. Stane was turning other companies against them and sabotaging Stark International. Someone tried to kill Rhodey with poison spiders, then his body vanished from the hospital. Stane hypnotized his employees and closest friends into killing themselves and trying to kill him. The girl who pulled him out of the bottle last time has vanished.
Oh, yeah, this is AFTER Demon in a Bottle. He already knows he's an addict. He just barely resists the pressure of all of this when his rebound girl, who he's centered his life around, laughs in his face when he asks if she loves him, and tells him that she loves his gifts, his toys, his money, his fame, and his property, but he's just a glossy shell with no substance to him and that no one could ever love that.
