ONE in three of us has an addiction, according to official figures. But if you tot up all the modern addictions that we’re supposedly prey to, it’s hard to believe that many of us aren’t some sort of junkie.

It’s not just fags, booze and drugs. Psychiatrists, nutritionists, sociologists and other scientists — particularly in America — are now writing extensively about addictions to love, sex, the internet, gambling, sugar, shopping.

And this week, research published in the Archives of Dermatology suggested that up to 53 per cent of beach-goers could be addicted to their sun fix. Scientists from the University of Texas said that when asked questions such as “Do you try and cut down the time you spend in the sun but still do it?” more than half emerged as UV-dependent.

This in the same week it was announced that painkillers containing codeine are to carry stronger warnings about the danger of addiction.

It raises the question of what really is an addiction. Some experts think it is all getting a bit out of hand.

To be defined as a true addiction, a habit has to fulfill at least three of seven criteria laid down by the World Health Organisation — for example, whether people get withdrawal symptoms, and whether they get increasingly tolerant so require more. Only tobacco, alcohol and drug (including codeine) addiction strictly conform to these criteria.

These are also, says Professor Colin Drummond, a psychiatrist specialising in addiction at St Georges Hospital in London, the only addictions where scientists have discovered a chemical mechanism stimulating the areas of the brain responsible for appetite and reinforcement of behaviour. “The problem with the sun-addiction story is that there’s no clear mechanism — the scientists have just tentatively offered an explanation in terms of the sun stimulating the release of endorphins,” he says.

Some other supposed addictions, he says, do have some characteristics similar to true chemical dependencies — gambling, eating and sex, for example, do seem to stimulate the same areas of the brain as drugs. They are at least candidates to be called compulsive behaviours.

But sun, shopping and internet addictions are a step too far. “There’s a danger that we make a medical issue out of what is, in fact, just extreme behaviour — some people drive cars fast, but it would be wrong to call them speed-dependent,” he says.

The spread of the word “addiction” is part of the American trend of making characteristics into diseases. It benefits drug companies but can turn us into victims. It’s a habit we should kick.

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