To help raise awareness about addictive disorders, sometimes it is necessary to ask questions. That’s exactly what the ASQ questionnaire does. ASQ (The Addictions Screening Questionnaire) is a self-assessment tool which will help raise your awareness about your own addictive behavior.
Consider addiction as a syndrome form of illness, one which has many different ways of manifesting itself. Being unaware of some of these manifestations is not a weakness on your part, it’s actually part of the process of change as we explained in the previous module (Understanding the Stages of Change). When you raise your awareness then you are more likely to move past the pre-contemplation stage and into the contemplation and action stages of change.
This questionnaire looks at characteristics which are common to all addictions as well as modes of behavior which are unique to each distinct addiction disorder. The 14 questions are organized in the following way:
- Questions 1 – 3 are designed to analyze whether the core characteristics of ALL ADDICTIONS are present.
- Questions 4 – 6 are designed to see if there isa noticeable progression in your addiction
- Questions 7 – 11 ask about things which are common consequences of all addictions
- Questions 12 – 14 asks about behaviors that are commonly associated with addiction.
Exercise 3: Please turn to your workbook and complete all sections of this ASQ questionnaire, then plot your results on the graph