Stop comparing yourself to someone worse. The three questions that actually matter are whether you can reliably control it once you start, whether it has moved up your list of priorities ahead of things you used to care about, and whether it has cost you something and carried on anyway. The amount and the frequency are far less informative than any of those.
The comparison trap
Nearly everyone arrives at this question with a stereotype in mind, and they do not match it. They have a job. They only use at weekends. They have never injected anything, or never missed rent, or never been arrested.
So the internal verdict comes back not guilty, and the use carries on for another two years while the comparison quietly moves. That is the mechanism, and it works because "someone worse" is an infinitely renewable resource.
The NHS definition is more useful than any stereotype, and it is short: ["Addiction is defined as not having control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be harmful to you"](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/addiction-what-is-it/).
Control and harm. Not amount, not substance, not what anyone else does.
The questions
Answer these on your own. There is no score at the end, and nothing here diagnoses anything, which is precisely why you can be honest.
**Control**
- When you start, do you reliably stop where you meant to?
- Have you set a rule for yourself about it and broken it? How many times?
- Have you tried to stop or cut down and not managed it?
**Priority**
- Do you plan your week around when you can use?
- Have you turned down things you would have wanted to do, because they clashed?
- Do you notice yourself steering plans towards evenings where it is possible?
- Has anything you used to care about, a sport, a person, a piece of work, quietly dropped down the list?
**Continuing despite consequence**
- Has it cost you something specific in the last year: money, a job, a friendship, a morning, a promise?
- Did you carry on afterwards?
- Are you keeping the true amount from at least one person who would care?
The last one is worth sitting with. Concealment is the most reliable single indicator on this page, because people do not hide things they are comfortable with.
What amounts and frequency do tell you
They are not useless. They are just the wrong first question.
Frequency matters most where the substance produces physical dependence, because that changes what stopping safely looks like. Daily use of anything is worth telling a clinician about even if nothing else on this page applies to you.
Amount matters most for overdose risk. Any period of not using lowers your tolerance, which is the single most dangerous fact in this stream and is covered in [why coming back after a break is the risky part](/guides/drugs/why-tolerance-makes-relapse-dangerous).
What amount and frequency do not do is settle whether you have a problem. Plenty of people use twice a month and have their whole month organised around it.
The urgent categories
Three situations skip the self-assessment entirely and need a conversation with a clinician now rather than after you have thought about it.
**If you also drink heavily.** Alcohol withdrawal is the one that can kill. UK clinical guidelines warn that ["stopping suddenly or substantially reducing their alcohol use too quickly can lead to severe complications and can even be fatal"](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/clinical-guidelines-for-alcohol-treatment/8-harm-reduction). If your drinking sits alongside your drug use, treat the alcohol as the urgent part.
**If you take benzodiazepines**, whether they were prescribed or not. Coming off them needs a prescriber and a slow reduction. NICE guidance on medicines linked to dependence is direct: "Do not stop a medicine abruptly (complete cessation with immediate effect) unless there are exceptional medical circumstances."
**If you use opioids alone.** That is not primarily a question about whether you have a problem. It is a survival question, and [naloxone and keeping yourself alive](/guides/drugs/naloxone-and-keeping-yourself-alive) matters more this week than any assessment does.
What "no diagnosis" does and does not mean
You may have been told, by a doctor or by yourself, that what you are doing does not count. Recreational, weekend only, not a real drug, everybody does it.
Two things are true at once. Formal criteria exist and clinicians use them, and none of that is the gate you have to pass to get help. UK drug services do not require you to be at any particular point on any scale before they will talk to you. The referral question is whether you want help, not whether you have earned it.
The reverse is also worth saying. If you have decided you are an unusual case, the numbers say otherwise. 329,646 adults were in contact with drug and alcohol treatment services in England between April 2024 and March 2025 ([GOV.UK](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/substance-misuse-treatment-for-adults-statistics-2024-to-2025/adult-substance-misuse-treatment-statistics-2024-to-2025-report)). Whatever you say on the phone, the person hearing it has heard it before.
The cannabis question specifically
This one gets its own paragraph because a particular argument keeps people stuck for years: cannabis is not addictive, so what you are experiencing is not real.
Set the argument aside and look at your own evidence. If you have tried to stop and not managed it, if stopping produced days of bad sleep, night sweats, irritability and no appetite, and if you use daily and plan around it, then the label is irrelevant. Something has hold of your week.
The withdrawal is uncomfortable rather than dangerous, and it does end. That is a genuinely easier position to be in than the alcohol one, and it is not the same as nothing.
If the honest answer is yes
You do not need certainty to make one call, and the call is short.
- **A GP.** The NHS says "a GP may be a good place to start. They can discuss your problems with you and help get you into treatment." You do not need to have stopped, and you do not need a speech.
- **A free local service, no referral needed.** [We Are With You](https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/help-and-advice/) lists free drug and alcohol services across England and Scotland and runs a webchat staffed by trained recovery workers.
- **A phone line tonight.** FRANK is 0300 123 6600, 24 hours. Narcotics Anonymous UK is 0300 999 1212 between 10am and midnight. Cocaine Anonymous UK is 0800 612 0225. SMART Recovery UK is 0330 053 6022. Samaritans is 116 123 at any hour.
If you want the practical first moves rather than the assessment, [how to stop using](/guides/drugs/how-to-stop-using-drugs) is the anchor piece, and [the people, places and hours that pull you back](/guides/drugs/mapping-your-using-triggers) is what to do once the crisis has passed.
Common questions
**How do I know if I am addicted to cocaine?** Look at control, priority and consequence rather than at how often you use. Repeatedly using more than you planned, organising weekends around it, and continuing after it has cost you money or relationships are the signals. Weekend-only use is not a defence, particularly if the weekend now starts on Thursday.
**Am I addicted if I only use at weekends?** Possibly. Frequency is not the test. If the week is arranged around the weekend, if you cannot stop once you start, and if you have tried to cut down and failed, the pattern is there regardless of which days it lands on.
**Is cannabis really addictive?** The argument is beside the point for your purposes. If you have tried to stop and could not, and stopping produced days of bad sleep, sweating and irritability, then something is holding you whatever anybody calls it. It is uncomfortable rather than dangerous, and it does pass.
**Do I have to be at rock bottom before a service will see me?** No. UK services take self-referrals from people who are still using, still working and still functioning. There is no threshold you have to reach first, and waiting to qualify is how years go by.
**Will my GP put it on my record or tell anyone?** It goes in your medical record, as any health information does. If confidentiality is the thing stopping you, ring a free service first and ask at the start of the call exactly what they record and in what circumstances they would share anything. That is a normal question and they will answer it.
Sources
- [NHS, Addiction: what is it](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/addiction-what-is-it/), for addiction defined as not having control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be harmful.
- [NHS, Drug addiction: getting help](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/drug-addiction-getting-help/), for the GP route into treatment.
- [GOV.UK, UK clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment, harm reduction](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/clinical-guidelines-for-alcohol-treatment/8-harm-reduction), for the warning that reducing alcohol too quickly can be fatal.
- [GOV.UK, adult substance misuse treatment statistics 2024 to 2025](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/substance-misuse-treatment-for-adults-statistics-2024-to-2025/adult-substance-misuse-treatment-statistics-2024-to-2025-report), for the number of adults in contact with treatment services in England.
