Addiction Awareness Week took place across the UK from 19 to 25 September, with this year’s campaign focusing on a simple but important idea: making addiction easier to talk about. Organised through Taking Action on Addiction, a campaign led by The Forward Trust, the week launched The Big Addiction Conversation, a national initiative aimed at challenging stigma, increasing understanding and encouraging more open discussion about addiction and recovery.
The campaign has set a goal of starting 17,000 conversations about addiction over the year ahead, one for every life the campaign says is lost annually in the UK to alcohol or drug-related causes. These conversations are not intended only for professionals or people directly affected by addiction. They can happen between friends and family, at work, around the dinner table, over coffee or in community settings. The idea is to create space for questions that are often avoided because of shame, judgement or uncertainty.
At the centre of the campaign is a new set of Big Addiction Conversation Cards, created with people who have lived experience of addiction and recovery. The set includes 40 question cards covering themes such as understanding, empathy, reflection, society and action, together with ten fact cards designed to challenge assumptions and prompt discussion. Questions include why some people develop addiction while others do not, why society judges some addictions differently, and what recovery actually looks like. The cards can be used in physical form or through an online Digital Conversation Generator.
The campaign also places strong emphasis on how these conversations are held. Participants are encouraged to listen as well as speak, remain curious, make space for different perspectives and think carefully about the language they use. Person-centred language is encouraged, while personal experiences shared during conversations should be treated with care and respect. The aim is not to make everyone agree, but to help people question assumptions and better understand how their own views about addiction have been formed.
Although Addiction Awareness Week has now ended, The Big Addiction Conversation is intended to continue throughout the coming year. That longer perspective is an important part of the campaign. Reducing stigma and changing the way addiction is understood cannot be achieved during one awareness week alone. The campaign instead invites people to keep the conversation going, in homes, workplaces and communities, and to make addiction something that can be discussed more openly, honestly and without judgement.
Find more from Taking Action on Addiction (UK, September 2026)
