Experts are increasingly acknowledging that a drug addiction is a serious medical condition and not something that can simply be dealt with by willpower alone.
Drug addiction therapy can come in a variety of forms, but its central principle is almost always the same: tackling a drug addiction is not something that an individual should be left alone to attempt, because like any illness it needs treating by the appropriate professionals.
Although it may seem like there is no way of overcoming a drug addiction when a person is in the midst of it, scientific research that has been carried out since the 1970s has continually proven that effective drug addiction therapy can help a person kick their habit.
For a programme of drug addiction therapy to prove successful, a number of core principles need to be taken into account.
First of all, no drug addiction therapy will be exactly alike - everyone must overcome their problem on their own terms and that means creating a drug addiction treatment programme that is tailored to each individual's needs.
Furthermore, while medication can provide an important part of effective drug addiction therapy, it should not be the only tool used to get an individual off a substance.
Instead, medication should be provided in conjunction with other forms of drug addiction therapy, such as individual or group counselling, where a patient is able to get to the root of their problem and tackle the underlying causes that often lie behind a descent into addiction.