Meaning of life and addictions: Philosophical reflections

In this paper, we are talking about the meaning of life as a philosophical notion and its relation to addiction. The paper is divided into three parts. In the first part of it "The theoretical framework," we are laying the foundations of our research by referring to some philosophers and their ideas on the meaning of life (Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and others), as well as to Austrian psychologists Victor Frankl. The second part is an analysis of some empirical research concerning the relationship between the meaning of life and substance abuse. And finally, in the "Conclusion" we will draw some final philosophical implications to see if philosophy can offer some solution to this problem. More precisely we will see how a relatively new philosophical discipline Philosophical therapy, can be beneficial for substance abuse prevention correlating it with the notion of the meaning of life.