Addiction Test
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- Never
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
- Never
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
- Never
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
Addiction Test - Description and methodology of the test
Most people spot the signs of addiction in one habit and overlook them in another. You may watch your drinking closely while the phone fills every free minute, or the other way round. This addiction test is for anyone who keeps breaking small promises to themselves: one cigarette, one drink, five minutes on the screen, one last bet. It puts the four habits side by side.
What the four scores measure
Each habit gets 16 questions and its own score from 0 to 64, shown as low, moderate or high. Nicotine looks at cigarettes that arrive before the decision: lighting up earlier than planned, the last one that is followed by another, a spare kept just in case. Its themes overlap with the Fagerström Test, which also asks how hard it is to go without a cigarette, but the items here are original rather than adapted. Alcohol covers evenings that run past the limit you set and amounts played down afterwards. Phone tracks automatic checks during conversations, meals and walks. Gambling looks at chasing losses, one more stake after deciding to stop and sessions reopened the same day. A higher score means that habit overrides your plans more often.
How the test works and what you get
There are 64 short statements about the last few months, and the four topics alternate. For each one you choose how often it happened, from Never to Very often. Unlike a quick addiction quiz that adds everything into one number, this test keeps the result of each habit apart. About three in ten statements describe the opposite, such as a week without alcohol that feels normal, and they are scored in reverse so fast answers do not inflate the result. When you finish, you will see:
- which of the four habits takes charge most often;
- a separate score and level for nicotine, alcohol, phone use and gambling;
- the situations that pushed each score up most, such as the cigarette lit early or the drink after the night was over;
- how far the other three habits sit behind the leader.
Many people expect the habit they worry about most to come first and find a quieter one ahead of it. Those who only thought about nicotine dependence are often surprised by their phone score. Seeing that order makes the first change easier to choose.
- Griffiths, M. D. (2005). A 'components' model of addiction within a biopsychosocial framework. Journal of Substance Use, 10(4), 191-197.
- Orford, J. (2001). Excessive appetites: A psychological view of addictions (2nd ed.). Chichester: Wiley.
- West, R., & Brown, J. (2013). Theory of addiction (2nd ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Grant, J. E., Potenza, M. N., Weinstein, A., & Gorelick, D. A. (2010). Introduction to behavioral addictions. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 36(5), 233-241.
- Heatherton, T. F., Kozlowski, L. T., Frecker, R. C., & Fagerström, K.-O. (1991). The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence: A revision of the Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire. British Journal of Addiction, 86(9), 1119-1127.
Updated: