So what do they really mean? Who decides who is an addict and on what basis? Is addiction an illness or disease from which you cannot completely recover or is it a functional behaviour that keeps people alive in the face of underlying trauma?
Is there such a thing as an addictive personality and, if so, is it down to our genes and/or environment? What are drug users recovering from and what are they recovering to?
This course will ask, and attempt to answer, difficult questions that have an important impact on how we go about supporting people who experience drug-related problems.