Addiction is a disease that effects 2 million people in the UK. Sufferers usually experience strong physical and/or psychological cravings for substances or alcohol. Fortunately there is plenty of addiction support available for those looking to confront and overcome their problem.
Addiction Charities and Organisations
Action on Addiction
Action on Addiction offers specialist support and help to people suffering from all forms of addiction. Their recovery programme (SHARP) encourages individuals to engage with other groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotic Anonymous.
Alcoholics Anonymous UK
This is a network of over 2,000,000 recovering alcoholics worldwide. Group meetings enable people to share their drinking problems, with the aim of overcoming their alcoholism and achieving consistent sobriety.
Addiction Counselling
Addiction counselling consists of a number of approaches that may prove helpful. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, for example, places emphasis on changing negative behaviour patterns and can be readily applied to the issue of addiction.
Integrative therapy is another option that fuses a variety of counselling techniques and provides therapists with a more flexible way of treating their clients.
- Addiction Support and Care Agency (ASCA)
- British Psychological Society – Find a Psychologist
- It’s Good to Talk – Find a Therapist
Addiction Helplines
Action on Addiction – 0800 917 0282
An independent charity that conducts research into finding new methods of dealing with addiction. They rely on contributions from the general public to fund their programs and aim to help people overcome their addictive behaviour.
Support Line – 0208 554 9004
Support Line provide a confidential telephone service that offers support for all kinds of issues including addiction. Their phones are manned by trained professionals and volunteers who offer confidential, non-judgemental help.
Addiction Explained
Addictive behaviour generally involves activities that provide an escape from worries or pain, such as shopping, drinking, gambling, sexual activity, eating, taking drugs or spending. It is through this perceived ‘escape’ that a person may develop long-lasting habits that, in some cases, impede on their every-day lives.
Although everybody has habit-forming tendencies to a certain extent, some people are more susceptible to addiction than others due to genetic factors. And while a small amount of addicts are capable of breaking their habits, most need some form of treatment to help them break their addictive behaviour. Below is a list of charities and services offering addiction counselling.
