About Treatment

  • What is treatment?

    Treatments are usually divided into psychosocial and pharmaco-therapies and seen as distinct from self-help or natural recovery processes…

  • What is recovery?

    Recovery is a journey towards a lifestyle that is not controlled or constrained by alcohol, drugs or tobacco. See how to get there…

  • Family and friends

    You cannot over estimate the importance of a trusted friend to someone who needs help…

  • Effective people

    Some addiction practitioners are more effective than others. Who will make things better, who will make things worse…

  • Effective places

    The culture of a service is as important as the interventions it offers. Which agencies make things better…

How good is treatment?

  • 12-steps & mutual aid

    The approach has stood the test of time. No other intervention has such effectiveness and freely available accessibility.

  • Alcohol treatment

    Alcohol treatment is probably the most researched and developed of all addiction interventions. There are effective treatments to choose from…

  • Opioid treatment

    Treatment for opioid addiction tends to be overshadowed by substitute prescribing. There are good alternatives to consider…

  • Stimulant treatment

    Use of stimulant drugs tends to be self limiting because most people cannot function on a constant high. Limited options…

  • Cannabis treatment

    Help seeking for cannabis addiction is not so common and nor are specific treatments. Applying general principles is effective…

  • Talking therapies

    The most effective talking therapies include building support, adopting a motivational style and applying behavioural approaches…