How does the National Strategy on Addiction picture an individual's consumption patterns and their distribution in the population?

Each person has a separate profile per area (alcohol, tobacco, drugs, nutrition, exercise, other behaviours such as gambling or gaming), and can be low-risk in one area and at risk in another. In the population most people are low-risk, a smaller group shows risk behaviour and a few are dependent, and people move between these zones in both directions.

Individual patterns: the strategy draws a person in the middle of a spider chart whose axes are the areas of behaviour and consumption, with green (low-risk), yellow (risk) and red (addiction) rings. A typical profile is uneven: someone may eat and move healthily but drink at risk, or smoke but never gamble. Addiction work therefore looks at the whole profile, not at one substance.

Population distribution: for both behaviours (Verhaltensweisen) and substance use (Substanzkonsum):

• the large majority is in low-risk behaviour,
• a smaller share shows risk behaviour,
• a small share is dependent (Abhängigkeit).

The arrows in the model point both ways: people slide into risk and back out of it, and even dependence is not a one-way street. This is why prevention and early intervention are worthwhile at every stage.

Go deeper:

• Sucht Schweiz: Schweizer Suchtpanorama — the yearly overview of consumption across substances and behaviours (German).