De Druglijn, the public service of the Flemish Alcohol and Other Drugs Expertise Centre, has handled a record number of queries about addiction for the fourth year in a row.
Since 1994, anyone with questions about excessive drinking, drugs, pills, gambling and excessive gaming can contact De Druglijn anonymously. It aims to inform people and refer addicts to treatment options but also to alert the government and the field of worrying trends.
The Druglijn answered a record 8,525 questions by phone, email and chat in 2022, the annual report published by the helpline on Thursday stated.
"Never before were so many questions asked as in 2022. We made a total of 3,614 phone calls, had exactly 2,500 chat conversations, and answered 2,411 questions via email," the report read. "The increase in the number of contacts is also accelerating: in 2022, 7% more questions were answered than in the previous year; in 2020, the increase was only 2%."
Chat function continues to grow in popularity
People who contact the organisation because of personal use, gambling or gaming accounted for 46% of all queries, according to the report. This makes them increasingly clearly the largest group of callers.
A total of 32% of questions were about alcohol, making it the addiction that was asked about the most. While the most frequently asked questions were about cannabis until 2020, they only accounted for 24% last year. Cocaine ranked third, with 18% of questions relating to this drug.
On average, contacts with De Druglijn last longer than before. "This means that the questions and problems raised are often more complex in recent years," said Tom Evenepoel, coordinator of De Druglijn. "The need for a listening ear has increased due to the impact of the pandemic."
The increase in contacts is partly explained by the rising use of the chat service, for which additional investment has been made in recent years. In 2019, its opening hours were extended for the first time and were doubled as a result of the pandemic, resulting in the number of chat sessions tripling.
The organisation noted that this function appears to be more approachable for young people: while one in three (35%) callers turn out to be under 25 years old, the figure is almost six in 10 for chat conversations.
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"Of course, these are not all young people who use, gamble or play games. Often they are also schoolchildren and students asking questions for a school assignment. But from a preventive point of view, it is very valuable that De Druglijn reaches that age group," Evenepoel said.
The chat service is also more popular with questions about people's own use, gambling or gaming, resulting in just over half of all cases dealt with online relating to a person's own use.
