Is Addiction Really A Disease? With Clive and Dom

Is Addiction Really A Disease? With Clive and Dom

What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? This conversation pulls apart one of recovery’s big arguments: is addiction actually a disease, or is something else going on? Matt Stevens sits down with Clive and Dom to chat through their own experiences of addiction, autopilot behaviour and the messy middle ground between choice and compulsion.

Matt talks about those days in active addiction where he’d swear he was done, only to "wake up" later and realise he’d called the dealer and used anyway. That strange gap between intention and action is at the heart of the episode. Clive challenges the disease label by focusing on environment and connection. He points to experiments like "rat park" and shares how improving his surroundings, food, friendships and daily habits made old fixes feel far less appealing.

As he puts it, "I don’t think it was a disease within me. I think there was a dis-ease within me." That tiny hyphen becomes a big idea: addiction as a response to feeling out of balance, not doomed biology.

Dom brings in the idea of simplifying life down to "a good choice or a bad choice" in each moment, and talks about how changing your "channel" – the people you’re around, the stories you tell yourself – can reshape behaviour over time. The three also joke about mobile phone dependence and fast food, showing how addictive patterns pop up far beyond drugs and alcohol.

You’ll hear practical suggestions too, like Matt’s "awareness alarms" to snap out of autopilot, and the importance of supportive groups where people focus on making life better rather than obsessing over addiction itself. If you’ve ever wondered whether your struggle is a disease, a set of choices, or something in between, this honest chat might help you ask a better question: what small shift could bring you a bit more ease today?