#53- 17 Words for Talking about Addiction

Welcome to episode #53- 17 Phrasal Verbs, Slang Words and Idioms for Talking about Addiction. Whether it's an addiction to food, an addiction to work or an addiction to gambling, the topic of addictions is a common one throughout the world. In this episode, we dive deeper into the world of addictions because of how important this topic is to many cultures around the world. In this episode, you'll learn vocabulary like fall off the wagon, wean off, go cold turkey, hit rock bottom and more! By the end of this episode, you'll be able to speak about this topic with CONFIDENCE! 

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• All 17 words and definitions
• All new words in real life contexts
• Example sentences 
• Practice activities
• The transcript

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Transcript

[00:00:00] On this episode of The Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 17 slang words, idioms, and phrasal verbs all about addiction. You will be learning vocabulary like wean off, go cold turkey, hit rock bottom, fall off the wagon, and more.

Let's get to it.

Hey there. Welcome to The Real Life English with Gabby podcast. I'm your host, Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City. My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.

Are you ready to improve your English skills? Let's jump right in.

Hey, hey, hey. Greetings from New York City. Welcome back to the podcast, and welcome to

[00:01:00] episode number 53. Today's topic can be a heavy one, but we are gonna talk about all types of addictions—not just the very obvious ones like drugs and alcohol. Addiction is a huge problem here in the USA and in many countries around the world. So I figured it would be good to discuss this topic on the podcast.

One thing that I love about teaching English is the diversity of topics in my classroom. Here in New York City, I always encourage students to ask questions about any topic that they want. There's no topic that's off-limits in any of my classrooms, and the main reason for that is because there are really no topics that are avoidable.

In the real world, you're going to hear English conversations

[00:02:00] about everything under the sun, and I want my students to be prepared, which is why I've taken the same approach on the podcast. I don't want there to be any topics that I'm afraid to cover because I want you all to be prepared for anything that you might experience.

Addiction actually used to be a topic in the school that I taught in the curriculum for C1, which is, traditionally called advanced. And it was a very interesting topic to look at addictions. There's a lot of things to talk about with it going into today's episode.

You know I love to look up—I love to do research—and I love to talk about statistics because I always want to make sure that I'm giving the right information. So I decided to look up the top five most common addictions in the world, and I decided to look up the top five most common addictions in the USA.

And some of the results will surprise you.

[00:03:00] Let's first talk about the world. Can you guess what the top five most common addictions in the world are? Let's start at number five. Number five: the fifth most common addiction worldwide is internet and smartphones. This one continues to rise on the list every few years because of how much society has become reliant on tech.

I'm not sure how big of a problem it is in your country, but here in the USA, smartphone addiction is huge, especially among Gen Z and Gen A kids—so basically 30 years old and under. It is a really tough situation here with kids relying more on technology and less on social interactions. It's changing generations a lot, and I can say that as a teacher, the

[00:04:00] difference is very obvious. In English, we say the difference is like night and day. The longer I teach, the more difficult it is to teach younger students because of their addiction to their cell phones. When I first started teaching back in 2011, the cell phone issue was very manageable in classrooms because if you told students not to use their phones, they would listen. But now it's definitely more challenging, and it's only going to get worse with time.

Okay, so now let's go to number four. Number four is actually caffeine addiction. Does this surprise you? It doesn't surprise me at all because of how much American society relies on caffeine—not only coffee and tea. I mean, most of the world loves coffee and tea, but more so on energy drinks and

[00:05:00] soda.

Those are common tools here for people who are lacking sleep and working or studying too much. Workaholism—addiction to working—is a big problem in the USA, and caffeine is one of the ways that people cope with that or that they deal with that. Now we get into the big three addictions, which I'm sure you can guess.

Number three is drug addiction. Now, this actually refers to illegal and prescription drug addiction. The craziest part of this, to me, is that prescription drugs are here in this category along with illegal drugs. We'll talk more about this shortly, but in a nutshell—which means in summary—drugs like cocaine and marijuana will always be in high

[00:06:00] use around the world, along with prescription drugs, mostly pain medication.

Moving to number two: it's actually nicotine—smoking and vaping. Smoking was number two in the United States in the past, but it's continuing to move down. However, some numbers are trending up because of teens and young people who have turned to vaping. While some vapes do not contain nicotine, some do, and the addiction continues to be there. Now, smoking itself has decreased tremendously throughout the world.

I've noticed in my own classrooms that there are fewer and fewer smokers.

Many of my students are surprised how difficult it is to smoke everywhere. Here in the United States, you can't smoke in parks, in

[00:07:00] restaurants, in front of buildings, and in many other places. This is because there was a huge campaign in the '90s and 2000s to cut down smoking in the USA. That, combined with rising lung cancer rates, has led to smoking being not so common here. And on top of that, it's something that you get highly criticized for. So many people end up quitting.

Unfortunately, however, many young people think that vaping is better than smoking, and so vaping companies have started to use

low-quality, even bad ingredients in vapes. It has already led to an increase in lung cancer and other diseases among young people. Some of my students have told me that in all of your countries, they've started to prohibit certain vapes. One of my German students told me recently

[00:08:00] that this was a very common topic, and that they have made certain types of vapes illegal.

I wish they would do that in the United States.

And number one addiction, as you've probably guessed, is alcohol addiction. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people suffer from alcohol dependence. It has gotten very bad in many countries. Here in the USA, it has led to many other problems like abuse, drunk driving accidents, and more.

Now, I want to shock you for a second and share with you the top five addictions in the United States. My students are always shocked when I share this with them, so let's see if you're shocked too. Maybe if you live here or if you've had a lot of American friends, you won't be so shocked. But a lot of you will be.

Okay, here we go. So, number one addiction

[00:09:00] in the United States is the same as the world—it's alcohol. And if you've seen American movies and you've known Americans, you understand why that's true. Alcohol culture here is huge, especially amongst young people. Underage drinking is a big problem as well—meaning people drinking before the age of 21. And this is one of the reasons why the legal drinking age in the United States is 21, because it has led to many, many problems.

All right. Number two is opioid addiction. This is prescription painkillers like Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, and illegal opioids like heroin and fentanyl. Now let's talk a little bit about fentanyl. Fentanyl...
 [00:10:00]
 Hopefully, it sounds similar in your language, or maybe you can look it up on Google. But fentanyl is the leading cause of overdose deaths now. It used to be heroin and cocaine, and now it's fentanyl. It's a painkiller that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, and it is now a crisis in North America—Canada and the United States. Fentanyl is often mixed with other drugs, and people are not aware of this. So one of the big problems is that you have a lot of college students and young adults, they buy drugs like cocaine, and they don't know that it's mixed with fentanyl, and then they end up overdosing.

We have an expression in English. We say, for example, drugs like cocaine, heroin, and marijuana are laced with fentanyl. This means that fentanyl has been added to those
 [00:11:00]
 drugs. Some of the people who this happens to overdose, while the others become addicted.

Okay. Number three is nicotine. Number four is marijuana, and number five is prescription drugs. Now, this is very crazy—three out of five of the top addictions are drug-related. Crazy, right? And sad. The drug problem in the USA is real.

I was watching a popular series recently called The White Lotus. It's a very popular show on HBO Max. It's a show that is very good at showing the hidden problems in society. It does a great job of showing how people hide their problems, and oftentimes it involves using drugs, sex, and alcohol to cope
[00:12:00]
with your problems instead of actually trying to deal with your problems. It's a great show.

Sometimes it's disturbing, but very good and really great for your English. It continues to win Emmy Awards every year because of how good the show is. So check it out if you have HBO Max.

Now, in the USA, many drugs are taken by the upper classes of society, and it's very accepted. For example, in Ivy League universities like Harvard, it's very normal these days for students to take prescription medications or even medications that they buy from other students to help them focus or to help them stay awake. So during testing times, they stay awake using these drugs. Or they take focus drugs meant for other issues
 [00:13:00]
 that help their brain focus. In high-stress and high-performing careers like law and finance, drugs are a very common thing as well.

The other issue is that American doctors are incentivized to write prescriptions for drugs. This means that they are given benefits—often financial—for giving their patients drugs. Two movies—uh, documentaries—that I recommend on this, if you're interested, are The Pharmacist, which is on Netflix, and then Dopesick on Hulu and Disney Plus. The Pharmacist and Dopesick. D-O-P-E-S-I-C-K.

In the United States, you know we have food addiction, we have workaholism—addicted to work. We have so many addictions here, but these are the top five.

Okay, now back to the vocabulary for today. You'll be learning
 [00:14:00]
 15 new phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms all about addiction.

Here are the words that you'll be learning in today's episode: to be hooked on, cut down on, give up, fall into, a drug fix, to be under the influence, to be spaced out, to be high, a drug trip, hit rock bottom, go cold turkey, wean off, fall off the wagon, a junkie, to spiral out of control, to be clean and sober, and kick the habit.

All right. Before we get to the story, I just wanna remind you that there is a study guide waiting for you that has everything you need to really learn these words and commit them to your
 [00:15:00]
 memory. If you want to learn these words and speak them naturally and with confidence, download the free study guide.

The study guide has all of the words, definitions, example sentences. It has the story, the transcript, and practice activities. All of these things are meant to help you speak like a native speaker. In order to get the link for that, just head to the episode description, and you'll find the instructions there.

Now listen to the story that I created that has all of these words in real-life contexts. See if you can figure out the meanings of these words by hearing the context. Then, after the story—then after the story—we'll talk about all of the definitions and examples together.

Now, this story is what we would call a wake-up call. A wake-up [00:16:00]
 call is when something happens in your life that wakes you up or makes you aware that you need to change your life.

Let's get started.

Matt was always the life of the party. In college, he got hooked on partying—especially drinking and recreational drugs. At first, it was just on the weekends, but slowly, he started using more and more. "I can stop any time," he told himself. But that wasn't true.

He had tried to cut down on the drinking and even tried to give up smoking weed, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually, he fell into a routine of waking up late, skipping work, and looking for his next drug fix. His friends noticed the change.
 [00:17:00]
 He would show up to hangouts clearly under the influence—sometimes laughing too much, other times looking totally spaced out.

"Are you okay?" they'd ask. "You don't seem like yourself."

Matt would shrug his shoulders. "I'm just a little high. I'm fine."

But deep down, he wasn't.

One night, after a bad trip and a panic attack, Matt realized that he had hit rock bottom. He had recently been fired from his job for missing too many days, and his grades in university
 had been slipping. He was about to fail out of school.

That's when he made a choice. He wanted to get better.

The next morning, he decided to go cold turkey. No more drugs, no more alcohol.
 [00:18:00]
 It was rough. The first few days were full of headaches, anxiety, and mood swings. But he stayed strong. With the support of his older sister, he slowly started to wean off everything he once depended on. She cooked healthy meals, went on walks with him, encouraged him to go to the gym, and reminded him daily of how proud she was.

There were times he wanted to quit. There were even days he nearly fell off the wagon. But he kept going.

Months later, Matt stood in front of a small group at a local community center and shared his story.

"I used to be a total junkie," he admitted. "I let my life spiral out of control. But today, I'm proud to say that I finally kicked the habit.
 [00:19:00]
 It has been almost a year, and I'm clean and sober."

The room applauded for him, and Matt smiled. He wasn't the life of the party anymore, but for the first time in a long time, he felt truly alive.

The end.

Alright, let's talk about this vocabulary, shall we?

First of all, we see the phrasal verb hook on. In this case, it was used in the passive form to be hooked on. He's hooked on partying. This is to be addicted to something or obsessed with something, often in an unhealthy way. You can be hooked on things that are not necessarily bad for you when they're used in moderation, but once you become hooked on them, it becomes unhealthy. For example, he's [00:20:00] completely hooked on energy drinks and usually has four to five per day.

Next we have cut down on. This is a three-word phrasal verb, and it means to reduce the amount of something that you do or something that you consume. You can cut down on things like cutting down on junk food, cutting down on alcohol. You can also cut down on activities. I have to cut down on watching TV in order to study more. For example, my doctor told me that I need to lose weight and cut down on sugar and junk food.

Next up, we have the phrasal verb give up. This means to quit or stop doing something completely, usually something that is a habit or an addiction.
She [00:21:00] finally gave up smoking after 10 years. Notice that when we use give up, that if we use it with a verb, like give up smoking, give up drinking, give up using drugs, we have to use the gerund form of the verb, which is -ing. Alright.

Next up is fall into, to fall into something. This means to begin doing something often without realizing it, especially a bad habit or situation. So he fell into a routine, is what the story mentions. And the example here would be: He fell into a routine of staying up late and skipping class.

Next up, we have the expression a drug fix. This is a dose of a drug that an addicted person needs in order to feel satisfied, [00:22:00] feel normal. If they don't have this drug fix, they can't survive. They can't handle life. So we say, you know, we see a lot of homeless people here on the streets in New York City, and many of them are addicted to drugs, and we say that they're asking for money for their next drug fix. Some of them are not, but you know, some of them, it's pretty clear that that's what's happening.
For example, He was desperate and willing to do anything to get his next drug fix.

Next up, we have to be under the influence. This is a state of being affected by drugs or alcohol. This is a common expression, an official expression that's used by the law. For example, She was driving under the influence and got arrested.
 So if you are driving erratically, like in a crazy way, and [00:23:00] the police stop you, they pull you over. What's going to happen is that they're going to give you a test to see what's in your system, and if you are found with drugs or alcohol, the official charge is being under the influence, and that could send you to prison, send you to court, get fined—you'll get in trouble with the law.

Next up is to be spaced out. This is to be distracted, not paying attention. Mentally, you are distant. And often we use these, connecting them with drugs or even fatigue. If you're extremely tired, it's like your brain is in space.
For example, He didn't respond because he was totally spaced out in class.

Next up, we have the expression to be high. [00:24:00] This is slang, and this is to be experiencing the effects of a drug, especially a drug that changes your mood, changes your behavior, changes your perception. So we say, Oh, he's really high right now. He's not himself.
 For example, He was laughing at everything because he was high.

Next up, we have a drug trip. A drug trip is the mental and emotional experience that is caused by taking hallucinogenic drugs. Hallucinogenic means something that will make you hallucinate. We also call it a psychedelic experience. It's going to change your senses—your sight, your hearing. You're going to experience things that are not actually there.
She had a bad drug [00:25:00] trip after taking mushrooms and felt scared for hours.
 I know that mushrooms are a regular type of food, but it's also slang for hallucinogenic drugs—for a hallucinogenic drug that's common here in the USA.

Next up, we have the expression to hit rock bottom. This is to reach the lowest possible point in a bad situation. Often it's the last step that you needed before starting to recover.
So we say, Sometimes he just needed to hit rock bottom.
 After losing his job and apartment, he felt like he had hit rock bottom.
 The important thing about rock bottom that we say is: The only way you can go is up. You know, like every step is an improvement.

Next up, it's to [00:26:00] go cold turkey. This is kind of a funny expression—like it sounds weird. Go cold turkey—what does that mean? But it actually means to suddenly stop using an addictive substance. There's no slow reduction. You wake up one day and you say, Okay, I'm gonna stop smoking. And you do. It's a very difficult way to do something, but for some people it's effective. Other people need a slower process.
For example, He went cold turkey and didn't drink at all from that day on.
 The slower process, we call it wean off. This is to gradually reduce the use of something addictive until stopping completely.
The doctor helped her wean off painkillers slowly.
 So like I mentioned, usually when it comes to rehabilitation or recovery, people either [00:27:00] go cold turkey or they wean off. Some of them take medication. We have prescription medication here for people who want to stop smoking. I know several people who have done that method. So yeah, there are a few different ways.

Next up, we have the idiom to fall off the wagon. This is to return to drinking or using drugs after trying to quit. So imagine that you're riding a wagon, and this is the sobriety wagon, meaning that you have not had any drugs or alcohol in a long time, and then one day you just fall off—you have a drink, you start using drugs.
You know, the recovery process is extremely difficult. And it happens—people fall off the wagon. And then they say, You just gotta pick yourself up and get back on the wagon.
 For example, He was clean for [00:28:00] six months, but fell off the wagon last weekend.

Next, we have the slang word a junkie. A junkie is the slang way to refer to someone who's addicted to drugs. We all know people like this—either in our neighborhood, maybe someone that we knew, or maybe just when we take public transportation, you see someone that is totally spaced out on drugs—they're high—and all they do is just go from one drug fix to the other.
Very common here in the United States, unfortunately. Especially here in New York City, every neighborhood has a neighborhood junkie—someone who is extremely addicted to drugs, and that's all they live for. Usually they're homeless.
For example, He used to be a junkie, but now he's been clean for two years.

Next up, we have the idiom to spiral out of [00:29:00] control. This is to become worse and worse quickly and uncontrollably. We use this expression for life situations. We also use this for, like, arguments, for example. People are having a conversation, they're having an argument, and things just spiraled out of control—like they got so much worse really quickly.
An example would be: His life began to spiral out of control after he was fired from his job for stealing.

Next up is clean and sober. You've heard me say this a few times already in the episode. This means not using drugs or alcohol, living a healthy lifestyle free from addiction. So clean is used for drugs. So like, you can say I've been clean for six months, and then sober is used for alcohol.
She's been sober for five years.
 [00:30:00] For example, She's been clean and sober for over a year, and she's finally getting her life back.

And lastly, we have to kick the habit. To kick the habit is to successfully stop doing something that was a habit, especially a harmful one. We use the word kick when we successfully get something out of our lives that we really wanted to stop doing.
So in a relationship, for example, when you break up with someone, we say kick them to the side. In this case, we kicked a bad habit—dramatically, successfully, we stopped doing something.
For example, It took him three tries to finally kick the habit of smoking.

You just learned 17 awesome new phrasal verbs, [00:31:00] slang words, and idioms all about addiction. So now let me give you some homework. The first piece of homework is to go download the study guide so that you can get to work on committing these vocabulary words and expressions to your memory.

The next thing I'm going to have you do is pick five words from the episode and commit to using them this week. You can use them in any way you want. You can write them in a vocabulary journal. You can write a text message to a friend. You can even write me an email at Gabby—Gabby@englishwithgabby.com. Find a way to use these words so that you're more likely to become confident and use them naturally.

Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of The Real Life English with Gabby podcast. Be sure to [00:32:00] download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe for more weekly adventures in English learning. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a review.

Thanks so much for tuning in.