Addiction is fundamentally about compulsive behaviour.

Compulsory drug seeking is initiated outside of consciousness.

Addiction is about 50% heritable and complexity abound.

Most people with addictions who present for help have other psychiatric problems as well.

Addiction is a chronic relapsing disorder in the majority of people who present for help.

Different psychotherapy is appear to produce similar treatment outcomes.

“Come back when you hear motivated“ is no longer an acceptable therapeutic response.

The more individualised and broad-based the treatment a person with addiction receives, the better the outcome.

Happy epiphanies are hard to manufacture; and

Change takes time.

*Extracted from Doug Salman (2009) the 10 most important things known about addiction, 105, 6-13.