Many mental health professionals ignore chemical addiction, whereas many chemical dependency professionals see addiction as the entire problem and ignore everything else. This study investigated differences between addicts and non-addicts on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale. Subjects were undergraduate and graduate students, selected from a self-report questionnaire as male addicts (N=15), male non-addicts (N=15), female addicts (N=20), and female non-addicts (N=20). Addiction for the purposes of this study was broadly defined as any process over which the individual is powerless, whether the drug of choice is work, cocaine, or worry. Male addicts had the lowest mean scores followed by the male non-addicts on the behavior and identity scales of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale. Female addicts had the third lowest, with female non-addicts ranking highest on mean scores. The self-satisfaction scale deviated from the trend in that the lowest mean scores belonged to female addicts, the second lowest to male addicts, the third to the male non-addicts, and the highest to female non-addicts. The findings suggest that non-addicted individuals score higher on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale than do their same-sex counterparts, and overall females have a higher self-concept score than do males when tested on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale. (ABL)