How we decide what goes on this site

Our sourcing standards

We source statistics from established public health bodies and research (such as the National Council on Problem Gambling, the World Health Organization, SAMHSA, and peer-reviewed research), and we link or name our sources directly on the page rather than asking you to trust an unsupported number. If we cannot verify a claim against a primary source, we do not state it as fact. Instead, we describe the pattern in plain terms and leave the number out until we can cite it.

Our review schedule

Get Help pages covering insurance, law, and statistics are reviewed at minimum at least every six months to catch outdated numbers or legal changes. Blog posts display a visible "last updated" date.

What we won't do

• We won't accept payment to rank or recommend a specific treatment provider above others based on that payment.
• We won't use manufactured urgency, fear tactics, or casino-style imagery to drive clicks.
• We won't publish unreviewed clinical claims - anything describing symptoms, treatment efficacy, or diagnosis criteria is checked against current sources before publishing.

Who actually reviews what gets published?

Health and treatment content is written by someone in recovery and checked line by line against published public health sources before it goes live. Editorial and policy pages, including this one, are reviewed by our editorial team for accuracy and tone before they go live. Nothing publishes without a second set of eyes.

Do you take money from treatment centers?

why.help is independently funded by the person who runs it. No ads, no sponsored listings, no referral fees. If we ever accept advertising, sponsorship, or referral payments from treatment providers, that relationship will be disclosed on this page and on any page where it could affect what we recommend. We do not let a funding relationship determine which treatment options we describe or how we describe them.

What do you do when you get something wrong?

We correct it, and we say so. When a factual error is identified, we fix the text and add an entry to a public correction log noting the date, the page, and what changed. We do not quietly edit a page and pretend the error never happened. Minor copyedits, like fixing a typo, are not logged as corrections, but anything that changes the meaning of a claim is.

How is AI used in producing this content?

AI tools may be used to help draft or restructure sentences, in the same way a writer might use a thesaurus or an outline. AI is not used to generate statistics, invent sources, or write claims that are then published without a human checking them against a real source. Every factual claim on this site is checked by a person before publication, and any claim we could not verify is marked rather than smoothed over.

How do you report an error?

Use the contact page and describe what you found, including the page URL and, if possible, the specific sentence. We read every message and will investigate factual errors directly. If your report leads to a correction, it will appear in the correction log described above.