1. What Our Content Is, and What It Is Not

Our checks are designed to encourage self-reflection. They ask about behaviors, feelings, and situations that many people experience.

What a check can do: help you notice patterns and give you a starting point for thinking about change.

What a check cannot do: tell you whether you have an addiction, a disorder, or a medical condition. Only a qualified professional can do that.

2. How Our Checks Are Developed

Each check is built around recognized behavioral patterns and risk factors that appear in public health research. We write questions in plain language so they are easy to understand and relate to.

We do not invent questions for effect. Each item reflects a behavior or situation that public health sources describe as potentially relevant to that habit.

3. Our Sources

Our content draws on publicly available information from organizations that study addiction and mental health, including:

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

The World Health Organization (WHO)

We also draw on many other reliable sources, which we cite where relevant so you can verify the information yourself.

4. What Our Risk Labels Mean

Our checks group results into three labels:

Low Concern Medium Concern High Concern

These labels describe how often the patterns in your answers appear. They are reflections, not diagnoses. A result of High Concern does not mean you have an addiction. It means the behaviors you described are common in patterns worth paying attention to.

5. How We Review and Update Content

We periodically review our checks and articles to make sure the information stays accurate and the wording stays clear.

If you notice an error or something that could be clearer, you can let us know and we will review it.

6. Your Privacy

Your answers are not stored, collected, or associated with you. Our checks run in your browser, and results are shown only to you.

For full details, see our Privacy Policy.

7. A Final Note

Every check result includes contact information for crisis and support resources, regardless of your score. Results also include resources tailored for teenagers.

If your answers, or your own feelings, suggest that a habit is causing problems in your life, consider talking to a qualified professional. In an emergency, contact local emergency services immediately.