When most people think of addiction, they tend to immediately think of alcohol and substance misuse. Working in addiction, I have witnessed firsthand how powerful they can be in controlling a person's thoughts, behaviours, feelings and emotions. However, what we often don't hear about are some of the newer addictions that feature prominently in people's lives, and can arguably be just as destructive. Do any of these situations sound familiar?

• You find yourself waking up in the middle of the night to check your phone, then struggle to get back to sleep

• Spending hours scrolling social media, to a point where you become unaware of how much time has passed

• Finding yourself needing a quick "hit" of pornography for stress relief, or as a "reward" for getting through the day

• Engaging in frequent hook-ups with new partners via dating apps, then feeling empty afterwards

• Frequently jumping from one romantic partner to the next, barely taking time to process the breakup before moving on

• Late evening snacking, often on sugary or high carbohydrate foods that you find hard to stop consuming

These scenarios are warning signs that you may have an unhealthy relationship with your phone, social media, pornography, sex, relationships, or food, or that you are using these as unhealthy coping mechanisms. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Modern life is full of temptations across a wide range of activities, even things that are generally good for us, like exercise. So let's break down some of the most commonly encountered in therapy.

Alcohol

When most people think about alcohol and addiction, they tend to reach for words like "alcoholic" or "alcoholism." However, these can be misleading. Modern therapeutic environments have moved away from this language, and now recognise problematic alcohol use through a term known as Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). This recognises that alcohol addiction is not a binary condition, but a spectrum that encompasses light social drinking all the way through to heavy binge drinking and physically dependent consumption. The latter is where AUD is at its most dangerous.

The NHS offers the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, a comprehensive 10-question screening tool developed by the World Health Organisation and adapted for use in the UK. One of the most common barriers to getting help with AUD is denial. It's remarkable the mental shortcuts people undertake to justify and rationalise an increasingly problematic relationship with alcohol. The very first step is recognising that alcohol is interfering with your normal daily functioning, in areas of work, relationships, socialising and living. It is only through acceptance that the healing journey of recovery can begin.

It often surprises people when I tell them that direct alcohol-related deaths outnumber deaths from all recreational drugs combined. In 2023, 10,473 deaths from alcohol-specific causes were registered in the UK, the highest number on record. Once you factor in indirectly related deaths, such as drink driving, that number increases significantly. In 2024/25, 99,955 people were in contact with specialist services for alcohol treatment in England alone. Men are twice as likely as women to drink at harmful or dependent levels, with an estimated 5% of men in the UK drinking at high-risk levels of 50 or more units a week.

The good news is that help is readily available. Alcoholics Anonymous offers local meetup and support groups for people who want to reach out and get help. What's perhaps not so well known is that Al-Anon is a support group for anyone affected by someone else's drinking, whether that's a family member, carer, or friend. It is often this second group, the affected others, who go unseen. AUD rarely affects only the person who drinks.

The most important thing to remember is this: it is never too late to get help. AUD affects people of all ages and all walks of life. The hardest step is simply making the decision to take action. Why not start right now?

Drugs

In the UK, approximately 8.8% of adults aged 16 to 59 reported using any drug in 2024, a stable figure compared to the previous year. Drug use is higher among young adults, with 16.5% of those aged 16 to 24 reporting use in the last year. Cannabis remains the most commonly used drug at 6.5% of adults, followed by powder cocaine at 2.1%. Around 3.3% of adults reported using a Class A drug in the last year, and there were 5,565 drug poisoning deaths registered in England and Wales in 2024.

It's worth mentioning smoking and vaping here too. Both involve nicotine, a highly addictive stimulant. Vapes in particular are appealing to younger people due to the wide variety of flavours available. As of 2025, approximately 10% of adults in Great Britain, around 5.5 million people, use vapes, up from just 1.7% in 2012, according to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Vaping has now overtaken smoking for the first time, with 55% of vapers being ex-smokers and 40% being dual users.

So how do you know if drug use is a sign of a bigger problem? Like alcohol, recreational drug use tends to occur across a spectrum, from occasional social use right through to daily, physically dependent consumption. Once caught in the addiction cycle, it can be extremely difficult to break free. People take drugs for many reasons: stress relief, hedonistic experiences, dissociative "trips" as seen with psychedelics, and very commonly, to numb pain or suffering. In a substantial number of cases, the precursor to drug use can be traced back to trauma that has not been fully treated or processed. Substances offer a temporary escape from that pain. But once the pattern begins, it can quickly become habitual.

Fortunately, there are some great resources available. Talk to Frank is a great place to start, offering confidential information, advice, and access to free local support services across England. Adfam is the leading charity in England offering support for people affected by someone else's drinking, substance misuse, or gambling, and they list a number of regional and national services that can help or signpost you in the right direction.

Gambling

This often surprises people, but nearly half of all adults in the UK, 48%, take part in some form of gambling every month. Gambling isn't just limited to placing bets at the bookmakers. It also includes lottery tickets, scratchcards, casino apps on your phone, fruit machines, and investing in stocks and shares. The test for whether something counts as gambling is whether the outcome relies largely or entirely on chance or luck.

Online betting and gaming now comprise roughly 46% of the market, worth approximately £7.8 billion. According to the Gambling Commission's 2024 survey, 2.7% of adults in Great Britain scored at “problem gambling level” on the Problem Gambling Severity Index, with rates higher in deprived areas and among in-play bettors.

Help is available. GamCare provides free support for those affected by gambling, with an online recovery toolkit, a peer community, and links to blocking software. Gordon Moody offers support for people who need more urgent help and advice. And if you're unsure where you stand, Gamble Aware offers an online gambling harms assessment tool that can help you reflect on how gambling may be affecting you or someone you care about.

Modern Phenomena

This is the area that often gets most people's attention, because it's the one that hits closest to home. When we think of addiction, we don't often consider whether it might be related to our mobile phones, social media, sex, pornography, food, love, shopping, or spending. But when we have an unhealthy relationship with these things, they can quickly spiral into compulsive habits we feel powerless to control.

The common factor in many of the above is the neurotransmitter dopamine. This is the chemical that signals reward to the brain, driving motivation, memory, attention, and mood. We experience it when a notification arrives from a new love interest, when a social media post gets hundreds of likes, or when we eat an entire chocolate bar in one sitting. These moments give us a wonderful dopamine hit that feels great in the moment but fades quickly. The problem arises when we find ourselves repeatedly chasing that feeling, to the point where it begins to affect our work, relationships, and wider wellbeing.

Alongside dopamine sits its cousin, serotonin. This is the neurotransmitter associated with feeling happy and content, helping us regulate mood and a sense of satisfaction. It is longer lasting and helps us feel relaxed and motivated. Together, dopamine and serotonin function as a kind of brake and accelerator system, with serotonin tempering the intense reward-seeking behaviour that dopamine drives.

Other neurotransmitters play a role too. Oxytocin, often called the "cuddle chemical" or "love hormone," helps us build trust, empathy, and connection. Endorphins are natural painkillers released during intense exercise, and endocannabinoids also combine with them to produce what's often described as "runner's high." Exercise also releases Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), a protein that supports neuron growth and cognitive health.

With all these naturally produced feel-good chemicals, it's easy to see why even exercise can become addictive. Social media algorithms are deliberately designed to keep us hooked, making it harder and harder to put our phones down. Ultra-processed foods contain flavour enhancers that make us crave them more and more, and they can even alter our gut bacteria so that we crave the sugars that keep those bacteria alive. Online shopping, pornography, and short-form video content all disrupt our natural neurotransmitter balance in ways that can lead to anxiety and low mood over time.

All is not lost, however. The first step is simply recognising that there is a problem. None of the above are insurmountable. The solution lies in healthy boundaries, balance, and adapting habits so they no longer get in the way of living a full and functioning life. This is where integrative counselling and coaching can help. Counselling offers a space to bring these habits into conscious awareness, and to undertake reparative work to understand what led to these behaviours in the first place. Coaching then offers a generative path forward through goal-setting, new boundaries, and committed action. And crucially, the Supporting stage of integrative therapy helps you build in safeguards to prevent regression and keep your progress on track.

If you're interested in addressing a problematic habit, behaviour, or addiction, I'd love to hear from you. Book your free 15-minute consultation here.

Statistics referenced in this article are drawn from NHS, ONS, DHSC, ASH, the Gambling Commission, and peer-reviewed research in the field of addiction and substance misuse. All statistics were correct at the time of publication.