How Do I Know If Someone is Addicted to Drugs?

Question: How Do I Know If Someone is Addicted to Drugs?

Answer: Have you ever felt you ought to Cut down on your drinking/drug use? Have people ever Annoyed you by criticizing your drinking/drug use? Have you ever felt bad or Guilty about your drinking/drug use? Have you ever had a drink or taken a drug first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover (Eye-opener)? If a person is compulsively seeking and using a drug despite negative consequences, such as loss of job, debt, physical problems brought on by drug abuse, or family problems, then he or she is probably addicted.

Those who screen for drug problems, such as physicians, have developed the CAGE questionnaire. These four simple questions can help detect substance abuse problems:

• Have you ever felt you ought to Cut down on your drinking/drug use?
• Have people ever Annoyed you by criticizing your drinking/drug use?
• Have you ever felt bad or Guilty about your drinking/drug use?
• Have you ever had a drink or taken a drug first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover (Eye-opener)?

Still not sure? Take the drug abuse screening quiz.

CAGE test adapted from: Ewing JA, Detecting Alcoholism: The CAGE Questionnaire. JAMA, 252:1905-1907, 1984.

Back to: Drug Abuse FAQ