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Whether you are worried about your own drug use or someone close to you, the same thing often brings people here: the gap between deciding to stop and being able to has started to show.
Abbington House supports people and families affected by drug addiction, whether the drug is illegal, prescribed, or something that started as one and became the other. We also support people where drug use sits alongside alcohol, anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD or other mental health difficulties.
Drug addiction is a pattern in which someone keeps using a substance even as it starts to cost them their health, relationships, work, safety or daily life, and finds they cannot simply stop.
It is not a moral failing or a lack of willpower. It is a recognised health problem involving behaviour, dependence, risk, and changes in how the brain responds to drugs.
Part of why it does not respond to willpower alone is that repeated drug use can affect decision-making, impulse control and the brain systems involved in reward and relief. People often describe the same frustration: they can see the problem clearly, they want to stop, and they still cannot. That is not a contradiction. It is part of how addiction works.
Drug addiction often builds slowly. At first, each change can seem manageable. Over time, it becomes harder to ignore what the drug is costing.
You might notice that the amount you use has crept up without a clear decision to increase it. You may start planning your time around using, getting the drug, hiding it, or recovering afterwards. You may try to stop or cut down, and the decision holds for a day, a week, or a few hours, then does not.
Other things can begin to narrow. You cancel plans because you cannot be sure what state you will be in. Work, study, family, money or health start to take the impact. Things you used to care about may still matter, but they no longer seem to pull you in the same way.
If you are watching someone else, the signs can look different. You may notice secrecy where there used to be openness, unreliability where there was consistency, plans falling through, mood changes, money worries, or a version of the person you recognise a little less each time. You may not know what they are using, or how much. The not knowing is part of how difficult this can be to name from the outside.
All addictive drugs affect reward, relief and repetition in some way, but they do not all behave the same. How dependency develops, what withdrawal feels like, and what kind of support is needed can vary a great deal from one drug to another.
Cocaine and other stimulants. Stimulants often create a binge-and-crash pattern, with an intense psychological pull, low mood, anxiety, exhaustion and cravings after use. Our page on cocaine addiction covers that pattern in more detail.
Cannabis. Cannabis addiction is often overlooked because the drug can seem less serious than others. But daily or heavy use can still affect motivation, mood, anxiety, sleep, memory and mental health, especially when someone is using it to switch off or get through the day. Our page on cannabis addiction covers what that can look like.
Ketamine. Ketamine can become compulsive and carries physical risks as well as psychological dependency, including risks to bladder health, memory and mental wellbeing. Our page on ketamine addiction covers this in more detail.
Heroin. Heroin can create physical dependence and difficult withdrawal. The fear of withdrawal often becomes part of what keeps use going. Our page on heroin addiction covers this in more detail.
Prescription medication. Some drug problems begin with medication prescribed for pain, sleep or anxiety, or bought over the counter and taken as directed, until stopping becomes harder than expected. This includes opioid painkillers such as codeine, dihydrocodeine and tramadol, as well as sleeping tablets and other medication. If that is closer to your situation, our page on prescription drug addiction is the better place to start, and our page on opioid addiction covers prescription opioids specifically.
Many people are not using one substance in isolation. Drugs may be used alongside alcohol, prescription medication, sleeping tablets, benzodiazepines or other substances. This changes the picture.
Mixed use can make it harder to see what is driving what. Cocaine may be tied to drinking. Cannabis may be used to come down or sleep. Prescription medication may be used to manage anxiety or withdrawal. Alcohol may be part of the pattern even when the person mainly thinks of the problem as drugs.
This matters because the risks are not the same for every substance. Alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal can be medically dangerous for someone who is physically dependent, and stopping suddenly should not be attempted without medical advice.2 Opioid withdrawal is usually not dangerous in the same way, but it can be severe, and returning to a previous dose after tolerance has dropped can increase the risk of overdose. Stimulant and cannabis withdrawal are often more psychological, but low mood, cravings and relapse risk still need to be taken seriously. If you are physically dependent and thinking about stopping, speak to your GP or NHS 111 first.
If alcohol is part of what has been happening, our page on alcohol addiction may speak to that side of it more directly
Drug addiction often sits alongside anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD, sleep problems or emotional instability. Sometimes the mental health difficulty came first and drugs became a way to cope. Sometimes drug use worsened symptoms that were already there. Often, the relationship runs both ways.
This matters because stopping the drug may not be enough if the person is still left with the same anxiety, depression, trauma, stress, pain or emotional pressure that the drug had been helping them manage.
Where drug addiction and mental health difficulties are both present, treatment needs to account for both together. Our dual diagnosis page explains how this is approached at Abbington House.
Addiction changes how people think, feel and behave around drugs. That does not mean things are fixed. With support, time and distance from the usual patterns, people can begin to get some control back.
In 2024 to 2025, 329,646 adults were in contact with drug and alcohol treatment services in England. Of those who left treatment that year, 46% had successfully completed treatment free from dependence.1
Those numbers do not say what will happen for any one person. They do show that many people use treatment, and that needing support is not unusual.
Support usually needs to look at more than the drug itself. That can include withdrawal, mental health, family pressure, daily routine, where someone is using, and what the drug has been doing for them.
Our page on drug rehab explains how treatment can bring that work together. If you are worried about withdrawal specifically, our page on drug withdrawal explains symptoms, risks and when medical support may be needed.
Drug addiction often affects everyone around the person using. Families may find themselves checking, asking, arguing, covering, pulling back, or trying to work out whether they are helping or making things worse.
It is difficult to know what to do when someone keeps saying they will stop and then cannot. Families often need support too, not because they caused it, but because living close to addiction changes the whole household.
You can call Abbington House whether you are asking for yourself or someone close to you. The first conversation can simply be about what has been happening and what kind of support might be appropriate.
The fact that you are trying to understand what is happening, for yourself or for someone you care about, is enough reason to speak to someone. You do not need to be certain it counts as addiction before having a conversation.
A confidential conversation can help you understand whether what has been happening needs support, and what the next step might look like.
Sources
1. Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, Substance misuse treatment for adults: statistics 2024 to 2025 (GOV.UK, National Drug Treatment Monitoring System). 329,646 adults in contact with treatment services in England; 46% of those leaving treatment completed it free from dependence.
2. NHS Oxford Health, Guidelines for the Management of Alcohol Dependence (2020); NICE clinical guidance on alcohol-use disorders. Abrupt cessation in physically dependent drinkers can cause withdrawal seizures and delirium tremens; benzodiazepine withdrawal carries comparable risk. Both should be managed with medical supervision.
