When Looking into the addiction, I first started by searching online for different statistics provided by reliable sources. Organisations like the NHS, The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and GOV.UK all provide important and useful information. I've outlined my findings below.
I started my research by looking for some general information/statistics regarding addiction. One of the first things I came to realise was just how hard finding some statistics on addiction would be. Most people don't openly talk about any addiction they are dealing with and those who do, will generally be in some form of therapy and hopefully dealing with it. I found a 2019-2020 report on GOV.UK with information on substance treatment statistics. I used this as one of my main sources of information and I felt that focusing on the people in addiction will give me an accurate enough idea of who my demographic is.
Between 2019/2020 270,705 adults were in contact with drug and alcohol services. This is up slightly from the previous year (268,251). The number of people entering treatment between 2019/2020 was 132,124. This gives me a good idea of how large the demographic is.
The report also shows what substances are involved in that number. Opiates (52%) and Alcohol (28%) made up a majority of the cases of admission. The remaining 20% is made up of various other substances such as crack cocaine. This information has helped me shape what my project will focus on.
An addiction, or Substance Use Disorder (SUD) as it is labelled by many professionals, is when a user becomes overly reliant on a substance, behaviour or activity. The NHS defines it as "as not having control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be harmful to you." Most SUD's fall under one of two categories:
This refers to an addiction to a substance such as opioids, alcohol, tobacco or anything that involves some form of substance abuse.
This addiction can be characterised by: