lifelong. 'Jesse Bishop was a lifelong drug addict who had spent 20 of his 46 years in prison' {Guardian}. You might be a lifelong resident of New York or a lifelong church-goer or, at a stretch, a lifelong lover of music. But unless the unfortunate Mr Bishop had turned to drugs at a remarkably early age, lifelong is much too literal a word to describe his addiction.
( Bill Bryson )
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