But the biggest difference in how addiction is treated in 2018 as opposed to 1951 when my dad was a child, is that there are now medically-based treatment programs, whether as an inpatient or conducted in the community, that are run by medical professionals, backed by published research, and monitored by psychological and psychiatric practitioners.

For a long time, recovery treatments were conducted and overseen by people who weren’t formally trained, largely because addicts were shunned - and shamed - by the medical community, and therefore they sought out help from each other. This is basically how 12 Step programmes were born.

It is now widely understood - and the Snowflakes are getting the benefit of this now - that addiction is a disease, it’s not a weakness, and as a disease it should be treated medically and out in the open, just as other chronic diseases are treated.