Yes i do believe it helps u knowing the ins and outs of any addiction or addictions you have or a family member,friend or even sum one you just met!! Do thay have Physical Psychological or both Affects on the person! Every addiction is different one person mit experiance something or feel in away totally different to the next with the same addiction because home Life, Finances, Reationships, Employment, Physical or Mental heath! Are always a big factor! No 1s experience of an addiction is the same as the next! Even tho you have the addiction to the same perscription medication illegal substance or an alcohol dependancy!! whilst going through self help treatment (cold turkey) or professional treatment in a hospital or medical center, i myself have had a dependancy to opiates (heroin) For 4 years! iv been clean now nearly 15 years!! I ended up getting arrested one night and (only then) was i able To accsess the uk criminal justice treatment order! To be given a methadone perscription treatment! witch in itself is another addiction (manmade opiate) (methadone) to get u off your original addiction (heroin) were sometimes treatment could lasts longer by months n months and even years than the original addiction you had in the first place! I was persribed 120mls of methadone once a day for Nearly 14 months! Then thay were going to decrease the amount by 5mils every 3 months! It was 20mils tro the course of the next year!! Which would keep me in treatment for the nxt 6 years until i was down to 1ml of methadone! You can't even see that amount! Its minuscule! Thats were The psychological affects then would of really come in to play! It worked out i would of been longer on the methadone program order by 3 years then my original heroin addiction to begin with! During them years i read everything i could about addictions (all types) any thing and every thing i could with my own addiction in the middle of it all!! I chose to stay in treatment until i was down to 50mls of methadone a day as quickly as i could!! That next day after my last 50mls!! I said that's anuff!! I was done!! The only thing i add left to do was to self help (MYSELF) one way or an another -(Cold turkey)-Psychologically And Physically It was the worse 6 months of my life!! I wouldnt wish it on any one!! I felt as tho i was already dead!! i couldnt sleep, couldnt keep any thing dwn not even fuids! i was freezing one minute and burning up the next!! Cold sweets, Than straight away hot flushes!! The sweeting was incredable,i was very Aggaitated,Really depressed, i couldnt stop crying, i thought i was losing my mind! I was a single perant to my 7 year old daughter! Who was seeing me,her mum like this!! She didnt understand but thankfully during resersching addictions you read alot about familys togeather as perants with an addiced son daughter,mum and dads who are addicts with young children or teenagers! To be honest there isn't as much help as there should be for addicts ex addicts or there familys!! So yes please please read as much as u can about everything to do with an addiction or your own addiction because when u do come out of that dark tunnel you will see the light and just maybe youl av anuff nolage and experience to show the nxt addict -(NO PERSON)- THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!! XX