Yes, she did have an addiction as do many who have had lives filled with both physical and sexual abuse. However, she also had to deal with racism, being a woman in a man's world and there were no unjudgemental counsellors at that time. Addictions weren't considered a disease in her life time... just a weakness that so many of our parents, male and female, were encouraged to have in that era.
She lived in a time when white supremists were lynching blacks and leaving them beaten for the birds to feed on whether dead or alive. It makes your skin crawl yet is an important part of history and understanding why in some states freedom from slavery was still filled with fear.
In 1939, after singing her song “Strange Fruit,” she received a warning from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a government agency which lasted from 1930 to 1968, to never sing the song again. Billie refused and kept singing the song. And when she insisted on continuing her right as an American citizen to do so FBN Commissioner Anslinger, a widely known racist, made it his mission to take her down for her drug and alcohol addiction and relentlessly pursued her all the way up until her death in 1959. Despite her personal problems, Billie remained a major star in the jazz world. She appeared with her idol Louis Armstrong in the 1947 film New Orleans, albeit playing the role of a maid.
Unfortunately, her drug use caused her a great professional setback that same year. She was arrested and convicted for narcotics possession in 1947. Sentenced to one year and a day of jail time, she went to a federal rehabilitation facility in Alderson, West Virginia.
Released the following year, Billie faced new challenges. Because of her conviction, she was unable to get the necessary license to play in cabarets and clubs. However, she could still perform at concert halls and had a sold-out show at the Carnegie Hall not long after her release.
While her hard living was taking a toll on her voice, She continued to tour and record in the 1950s. She began recording for Norman Granz, the owner of several small jazz labels, in 1952. Two years later, she had a hugely successful tour of Europe.
Billie also caught the public's attention by sharing her life story with the world in 1956. Her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues (1956), was written in collaboration by William Dufty. Some of the material in the book, however, must be taken with a grain of salt. She was in rough shape when she worked with him on the project, and she claimed to have never read the book after it was finished.