Darren McGarvey's Addictions

Darren McGarvey explores Scotland's dangerous love affair with alcohol. At the liver unit in Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, Darren shadows Dr Mathis Heydtmann to see first hand how Scotland's obsession with alcohol is causing us deadly harm. In Dundee, he meets psychologist Suzanne Zeedyk to confront his own battles with alcohol and try to understand his problematic relationship with it. He also talks to historian Thora Hands to discover whether Scotland has always been a nation of hard drinkers.

Darren uncovers why Scotland has the highest drug-related death rate in Europe. He begins his journey on the front line of the drug crisis by spending a shift with the ambulance service during a busy Friday evening in Glasgow. He then travels to Fife, where he is trained to use Naloxone, a life-saving treatment that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose, and meets Reece who has been saved by the treatment twice.

How can you be addicted to a behaviour? What happens when you remove the chemical hooks of drugs and alcohol? Darren attempts to answer these questions by going back to where it all started for him: food. He meets Annemarie, who despite beating addictions to drugs and alcohol still struggles with food, and learns that for many, food is simply another way of coping with trauma. But in a world where fast food is big business, it can be hard to avoid. Darren meets food scientist Dr David Gally to find out exactly why the drive-thru and the chocolate aisle are so hard to resist. In Livingston, Darren meets Aidan who is in therapy for porn addiction, and has a sit down with psychosexual therapist Pauline Brown to try to understand why sex addictions are on the increase.