Free addiction assessment: understanding your mechanisms

It often feels as though you are alone, fighting in silence against a dependency that resists everything.

The reality is more nuanced. Today there are more and more ways available to make progress on the problem of addiction.

This free assessment is a space to understand better why the addiction is there, why previous attempts have failed, what keeps this ritual in place today, and how we might resolve it as part of a programme of support.

Key takeaways

• The free 45-minute assessment is a telephone consultation with Antoine Arnoult, distinct from automated screening questionnaires.
• The conversation identifies the unmet emotional needs that keep the addiction in place, rather than focusing solely on removing the symptom.
• The method on offer follows four structured stages to replace the addiction with healthy adaptive responses, validated during the assessment.
• These consultations are available from anywhere in France and abroad, in complete confidentiality and discretion.
• This first conversation comes with no commitment and serves solely to assess whether the support is relevant to your particular situation.

What this assessment really is

This free 45-minute assessment has five precise aims: to understand the underlying needs, to identify their role in keeping the addiction going, to explain the addiction replacement method, to discuss any blocks, and to confirm together whether or not the support makes sense for your particular problem.

A practical, personal conversation, not just an online questionnaire

This is not about ticking off symptoms on a standardised scale such as the DUDIT or the FACE (a short French alcohol-use screening questionnaire). Those tools measure intensity, not an emotional function. This telephone consultation is a concrete conversation about your problem, where we take the time to listen to the story behind the use or the compulsive behaviour.

It is a moment to set down what weighs on you, with no judgement and no expectation of an immediate solution.

Who this first appointment is designed for

This conversation is for adults or teenagers who want to understand better how they work so they can get out of addiction effectively, while feeling exhausted or discouraged by their unsuccessful attempts to do so.

People who may already have called on their willpower, tried residential treatment or other withdrawal methods, tried classic hypnosis or followed conventional therapies without any concrete or lasting result.

If you feel you have tried everything, and discouragement may have set in in the face of this run of failures, that is exactly the profile this space was designed for.

Identifying the deep needs that keep the addiction going

Addiction is never a problem of discipline or morals. It is always the symptomatic response to a suffering or an unmet need trying to express itself. As long as we do not understand what the addictive behaviour is for, we cannot hope to replace it with anything viable.

Addiction as a response to an unmet need

Every dependency fulfils one or more precise functions: numbing a particular anxiety or trauma, filling a lack of affection or pleasure, regulating a painful or uncomfortable inner tension.

The conversation links the addictive symptom to its emotional functions, rather than treating it as a character flaw or a lack of discipline.

Mapping the underlying emotions and conditioning

During these 45 minutes, we explore together the emotional triggers and old learned patterns that make reaching for the substance or the behaviour automatic.

This approach draws on 32 years of personal and professional experience, with a specialisation in addictions that resist conventional methods.

This support has a satisfaction rating of 4.9/5 on Google from 98 Google reviews.

This mapping is nothing like an intellectual exercise. It aims to feel, concretely, how body and mind have associated the addiction with a form of survival, soothing or relief.

Why willpower alone is not enough to replace the behaviour

Willpower acts on the visible symptom. It remains powerless against the deep need that keeps demanding satisfaction in the background.

Removing the addiction without having identified that need is like taking away a crutch without treating the fracture. That is why so many relapses happen after periods of heroic abstinence.

This assessment is precisely a way to check that the underlying needs have been correctly identified, before considering any attempt at change.

Assessing whether the replacement method is right for you

The support follows a method structured in four stages, targeting the deep needs rather than simply removing the symptom.

This logic of replacement does not mean substituting one dependency for another. It gradually builds inner and outer resources able to meet the original need in a healthy way.

Understanding how effective substitution works

During the assessment, we will take some time to help you understand how this four-stage method works both on deactivating conditioning and on activating new responses.

You will then be able to judge whether this approach fits the way you function and what you currently expect.

Remote support for complex addictions sometimes makes it possible to access this method when specialised local resources are lacking, or when discretion is paramount.

Checking that the approach fits your particular situation

Just because a method works for many people does not mean it will necessarily suit your current situation. During this conversation we take the time to assess that compatibility, looking honestly at whether the conditions are in place for the support to bear fruit.

You will leave with a clear view of what could work for you. Even if that means recognising that the time is not yet right.

Talking openly about potential blocks

Doubts, fears and hesitations about a new form of support are legitimate, and essential to voice before any commitment. This space lets you raise whatever might stand in the way of the therapeutic work: practical constraints, inner resistance, mistrust fed by disappointing past experiences.

Addressing these blocks at the assessment stage avoids committing to a process you would not be fully invested in.

How the video session works in practice

Most consultations take place by video call, from anywhere in France and abroad.

This makes it possible to support people who live far away, or who prefer the discretion of remote support.

Technology is only a medium. It is the quality of presence and listening that defines the therapeutic setting, whatever the physical distance.

Technical setting and confidentiality

The session takes place on a secure platform that guarantees the confidentiality of our conversation, an essential condition for addressing subjects as intimate as addiction. Support by video call sometimes allows more freedom to speak than a physical practice: you stay in your familiar surroundings while still being connected.

We take care to create a climate of trust from the very first minutes, so that you can speak freely without fear of being judged or labelled.

What happens after the assessment

This free time does not include a full treatment protocol. It serves as a basis for deciding what comes next with full knowledge of the facts. At the end of the 45 minutes, we will together have a clear enough picture to decide whether formal support makes sense, or whether it would be better to explore other avenues before committing.

No commercial or therapeutic pressure will close this conversation. The decision remains entirely yours.

How it differs from standard screening tools

Online self-assessment tests have their uses in public health. But they cannot replace the subtlety of experience and felt sense, nourished by a life story uniquely marked by addictions.

Mistaking a psychometric score for a deep understanding of your addictive mechanisms means risking missing what is really keeping the problem going.

The limits of standard self-report questionnaires

A questionnaire measures a frequency, a quantity, a severity. It never captures the meaning addiction takes on in a particular life.

These standardised tools do not pick up the emotional nuances, the buried traumas or the relational dynamics that feed the behaviour behind the scenes.

They say "how much" and "how bad". Never "why now", nor "what is it really for".

Booking your free assessment slot

Taking the first step towards a free addiction assessment takes courage, especially when you have already been through several failures and your self-confidence has taken a knock. And yet it is precisely in that vulnerability that a new understanding of yourself can open up.

How to book

To book an assessment slot, just click this link and choose a time that fits your schedule.

You can come with your doubts, your fears, your scepticism. They will be welcomed as valuable information, not as obstacles.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to prepare anything before the free assessment?

No specific preparation is needed, because the conversation follows whatever is alive for you in the present moment. You can simply jot down a few points that matter to you if that reassures you, but the conversation stays fluid and adapts to your pace.

What happens if I realise during the assessment that I am not ready?

That is a perfectly valid and respected outcome of this conversation, since its very purpose is to clarify where you currently stand. You will leave with a better understanding of your blocks and can come back when the time is more favourable, with no pressure at all.

Does the free assessment already include advice or practical exercises?

No, this time is dedicated to understanding your mechanisms and assessing whether the support is relevant, not to starting treatment. The concrete tools and the replacement protocol only come in if you decide to commit to the structured four-stage programme.

Can I do the assessment if I live outside France?

Yes, video consultations are open to people living anywhere in the world, whether French or English speakers. The remote format gives access to this specialised expertise wherever you happen to be.