"Addicted to Pain" was one of the first songs written during sessions for Fortress, which vocalist Myles Kennedy claimed helped the band to progress with the writing of the rest of the album, as well as encouraging them to be "more experimental".

[8] Writing for the website, Mary Oullette described the video as featuring the group performing "on a large stage decked out with three monstrous video screens towering behind [them]", interspersed with footage related to the lyrics of the song including "someone being set on fire in a crowd" and "an antique car [being] left on train tracks only to meet its impending doom".

In a review of Fortress for Loudwire, Mary Oullette described the song as "a straight-forward screaming rocker with blazing guitar riffs and melody driven choruses", praising it as a "perfect radio-ready track".

[16] Similarly, Chad Bowar for Loudwire noted that it "features first-class riffage and a blazing solo", describing it as "heavy, but still melodic and accessible enough that radio stations will be more than willing to play it".

[17] Upon its release as a single, Rock Sound magazine called it "a hard rockin' banger",[18] while Irish news website Joe described it as a "proper head-banger of a tune".