Support Groups

Where do support group meetings take place?

Support group meetings are usually held in unaffiliated community spaces such as churches, community centers, libraries, and schools—accessible spaces that can be rented cheaply.

Do you have to pay to attend support groups?

Most peer support groups, especially those based in the community, are free to attend.

Voluntary donations will be accepted during or after meetings to cover the rental of the space and materials. Part of the ethos of these programs is being self-supporting: they want to run entirely on member donations and not draw on outside funding. However, you’ll never be required to pay.

Some app-based treatment services, which include online support groups, charge a download or monthly subscription fee.

AA and NA support groups

AA and NA are the most widely available addiction support groups in the world. More than 123,000 AA groups meet in around 180 countries.^[7] Each week more than 70,000 NA meetings are held in 144 countries.^[8] Anecdotally, the programs claim to have helped hundreds of thousands of addicts, with some maintaining sobriety for decades.

However, 12-step programs aren’t for everyone. Although they aren’t affiliated with religions and members are welcome to substitute “Higher Power” for God, some people find spirituality off-putting. Others don’t like the portrayal of addiction as a disease that can be managed but never cured or the encouragement to attend meetings for many years. AA and NA groups in some locations may emphasize complete abstinence and discourage the use of medication such as methadone or naltrexone.^[9]

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)

Alcoholics Anonymous is the original addiction support group, its model was emulated to cure addictions to everything from drugs to gambling to binge eating. There are 71,000 AA groups in the United States and Canada, including 1,500 in correctional facilities. In total, these groups boast 1.3 million members.^[10]

SMART Recovery

SMART Recovery—or Smart Management and Recovery Training—is a secular program that teaches participants evidence-based strategies from CBT and motivational interviewing to liberate themselves from addiction. SMART Recovery holds that addiction isn’t a lifelong disease but rather a behavioral problem that can be corrected and left behind. Through SMART Recovery meetings, literature, and workbooks, participants build their motivation to change, defuse urges, manage difficult emotions, and plan for and lead a balanced, healthy life. More than 3,500 SMART Recovery meetings are held every week around the world.^[11]

Secular Organisations for Sobriety (SOS)

Also known as Save Our Selves, SOS was founded in the 1980s by James Christopher as a secular alternative to AA. Uncomfortable with AA’s emphasis on God and spirituality, Christopher devised a program that emphasized rational thinking and self-empowerment. SOS views addiction as a cycle of learned habit, chemical need, and denial. To unwind this cycle, participants daily acknowledge their addiction, accept it, and prioritize sobriety as the primary issue of their life. Meetings are regularly held to educate participants on the SOS method and offer them peer support.^[12]

Women for Sobriety (WFS)

Women for Sobriety is a non-religious alternative to 12-step programs for women, founded in 1975 by Jean Kirkpatrick following her failure to maintain sobriety while in AA. WFS holds low self-esteem is the root cause of addiction in many women. AA, which emphasizes powerlessness, humility, and accounting for wrongs, can exacerbate these women's problems. Instead, WFS encourages women to take responsibility for themselves, view themselves not solely as addicts but rather as competent women, and leave their guilt behind. It builds their self-value and promotes behavior change through positive thinking, encouragement, dynamic group meetings, and by “letting the body help,” with relaxation, exercise, meditation, and improved nutrition. Today more than 300 WFS meetings are regularly held in the United States and Canada.^[13]

Celebrate Recovery

Celebrate Recovery is a “Christ-centered” 12-step recovery program to help people overcome their “hurts, hang-ups, and habits,” including addiction, anxiety, eating disorders, co-dependency, and other compulsive behaviors. Celebrate Recovery claims to work through 35,000 churches in ten countries and to have reached more than five million people.^[14]

Moderation Management (MM)

Most support groups advocate complete abstinence from alcohol and other mind-altering substances. Moderation Management is different, helping people change their relationship with alcohol, avoiding harmful behaviors and consuming in moderation. MM acknowledges that it’s not the right choice for every problem drinker. Around a third of those who join MM decide to be abstinent and are directed to online groups of “MMabsers." But many members can significantly reduce the role alcohol has in their life while still enjoying the occasional drink.^[15]

Al-Anon

Al-Anon is a network of mutual aid meetings for the family and friends of problem drinkers, complementary to but independent from AA. Members accept their powerlessness over the addict and strive to improve their own lives by following a 12-step program and regardless of whether the alcoholic is still drinking. Al-Anon meetings are held in more than 130 countries.

Narcotics Anonymous (NA)

Narcotics Anonymous was founded in 1953 to guide people with drug addictions through 12 steps closely modeled on AA’s program. Its meetings are open to anyone with a “desire to stop using” drugs. As with AA, recovery begins with an avowal of powerlessness before the addiction and surrender to a healing God.^[16]

Cocaine Anonymous

Cocaine Anonymous is a fellowship of people struggling with cocaine addiction and helping each other through a twelve-step program based on AAs. Cocaine Anonymous meetings are held in 30 countries and online.^[17]

Nar-Anon

As Al-Anon is to AA, Nar-Anon is to NA. That is, Nar-Anon is a mutual aid society and 12-step program for the loved ones of people with drug addictions. It helps them manage the stress and emotions of living in close proximity to addiction, stop trying to solve the addict’s problems and internalize their guilt and shame, and attain peace for themselves.^[18]

Gamblers Anonymous

Gamblers Anonymous is a 12-step program and mutual-aid society for compulsive gamblers, closely modeled on AA and running since 1957. Participants admit their powerlessness over their gambling, seek help from a higher power, make amends for their wrongs, and work toward abstinence.^[19]

Overeaters Anonymous

Overeaters Anonymous is a community of people seeking to recover from compulsive eating and other compulsive food behaviors, with a 12-step program and 6,500 face-to-face and virtual meetings in 35 countries.^[20]

Sex addiction

There are several 12-step programs for people suffering from compulsive sexual and/or romantic behaviors: Sex Addicts Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, and Sexual Recovery Anonymous.

In most, members create a personal definition of sexual sobriety, abstaining from behaviors they have identified as harmful to them. These may include infidelity, risky sex, one-night stands, compulsive attraction to unattainable or abusive partners, co-dependent relationships, and the use of sex workers. Members work toward developing healthy and committed relationships.^[21]

Porn addiction

As with sex addiction, porn addiction can affect how the individual perceives sexual activities and may lead to unhealthy attitudes towards them. The support groups for sex addiction mentioned above can also help with porn addiction and Pornography Addicts Anonymous can help those who wish to speak with others who have the same affliction.

Dual Diagnosis Anonymous

Dual Diagnosis Anonymous is a support group especially designed for people with severe and persistent mental health and/or substance use challenges and their families. DDA follows a “12 plus 5” step model. The extra five steps guide participants through accepting their mental illness, becoming open to medication, therapy, and other clinical interventions, and working toward a healthy life. DDA hosts meetings in primarily Oregon but also in seven other U.S. states and the UK.^[22]

Dual Recovery Anonymous

Dual Recovery Anonymous is a 12-step self-help program for people who want to stop using alcohol and drugs and manage their emotional and psychiatric illnesses in healthy and constructive ways.^[23]