05 ago The 7 Best Online Sobriety Support Groups in 2022
Jillian Goltzman is a freelance journalist covering culture, social impact, wellness, and lifestyle. She’s been published in various outlets, including Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Fodor’s Travel Guide. Outside https://ecosoberhouse.com/ of writing, Jillian is a public speaker who loves discussing the power of social media — something she spends too much time on. She enjoys reading, her houseplants, and cuddling with her corgi.
- These groups meet regularly to provide each other with advice, comfort, and encouragement.
- The online community has since garnered more than 800,000 members.
- Seeking professional help can prevent a return to drinking—behavioral therapies can help people develop skills to avoid and overcome triggers, such as stress, that might lead to drinking.
- For individuals without insurance, there are still options available to access treatment.
A quick look at the 9 best online alcohol support groups
- It is intended as a resource to understand what treatment choices are available and what to consider when selecting among them.
- These treatment options encompass detoxification, inpatient, and outpatient programs, each serving different stages and severities of addiction.
- While AA and other 12-step programs may be best known, research indicates that alternative options to 12-step programs, including SMART Recovery, may also be effective.
AA also operates on the tradition that the group’s common welfare comes first, and the only requirement for membership is the desire to stop drinking. Ultimately, the goal of the group is to carry its message to alcoholics who are still suffering. With so many options available, you may be wondering which one is best suited to your needs. Based on our review, seven online addiction support groups stand out as being among the best. There are many opportunities to participate in a variety of ways. Participating in a group helps ensure that when a person reaches out for help, A.A.
How to choose a support group
Members can opt to speak about their experience or choose not to share, depending on their comfort level. Read more to see whether an online sobriety support group is right for you. SMART Recovery also offers a CheckUp and Choices app that provides modules on CBT and motivational exercises. Tempest combines mindfulness and CBT to help people abstain from drinking alcohol. Additionally, research suggests that support groups can help reduce substance use, provide engagement, and improve a person’s confidence in continuing to avoid substance use.
Upcoming Live Online Meetings
The NIAAA offers free pamphlets and publications to help addicts, family members, and healthcare professionals learn how to address alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Club Soda is a great group option if you are looking for live events that you can attend, a mindfulness approach to sobriety, as well as a searchable guide to alternatives to drinking alcohol. Club Soda might be best used as an add-on resource to other sobriety groups or 12-step programs since there is no inherent support group built into the program. Loosid offers chat groups to help sober people meet one another where they live, make new sober friendships, and find people to do activities that don’t revolve around alcohol. In addition to its social components, Loosid also works as a recovery app, with a Sobriety Help feature to help individuals work through a recent relapse and how people can maintain sobriety. Aside from 12-step programs, we sought to provide various online options that cater to different learning styles.
Meetings focus on healing in the present and don’t focus on someone’s difficult past. There is no requirement to introduce yourself as an “addict” like with some other support groups, and attendees typically talk about the week they just had. Alcoholics Anonymous is available nationwide with support groups in all 50 states. In addition to a geographical group locator on its website, AA has added a phone app that makes it even easier to find support groups and resources right from your phone.
Alcohol Support Groups and Resources
But addiction denial is a common symptom in an addict/alcoholic’s thought processes. Most addicts won’t seek help to stop using until struggling with alcohol addiction they are forced to face the reality of their situation. Addiction is painful for everybody who’s involved with the using individual.
What to look for in a sobriety or alcohol recovery support group online
Which one you choose will ultimately depend on your personal needs and goals. Talking to your loved one, who engages in unhealthy or hazardous drinking can be extremely effective and constructive if done tactfully, with compassion, and with the proper tools. After expressing the way you feel in a conversation with your loved one, they may be open to receiving professional treatment for their substance use issues. Before sitting down to talk with them (when they’re sober and have time to talk) about your concerns; however, it is helpful to research possible treatment options. Gather resources from doctors, counselors, inpatient alcohol rehab, and outpatient centers.
Ready for your first Meeting?
Alcoholics Anonymous® (also known as “AA”) and other 12-step programs provide peer support for people quitting or cutting back on their drinking. Combined with treatment led by health care providers, mutual-support groups can offer a valuable added layer of support. While 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) can benefit your loved one, Al-Anon meetings are great resources for you. Like AA, Al-Anon is a mutual-help group for the loved ones of those who struggle with alcohol misuse. Attending meetings, which are held all over the world, allow you to share your experience with others and find strength and hope from them and their experiences.
The four-step plan the organization offers is flexible, with different options for different circumstances. SMART Recovery states that it offers science-based methods to help people abstain from alcohol use. Primary care and mental health providers can provide effective AUD treatment by combining new medications with brief counseling visits. Caring for a person who has problems with alcohol can be very stressful.
Behavioral Treatments
Using live meetings and discussion groups, In The Rooms connects people around the world with others in recovery. The organization recommends using its online tools in addition to face-to-face meetings. These online tools have been a substitute connection method for members during the COVID-19 pandemic. A person should always contact a healthcare professional when they are considering stopping alcohol use or if a person’s alcohol use is negatively affecting their daily life and health. Alcohol support groups are for people recovering from alcohol use disorder or beginning the recovery process. These groups offer tools and strategies to help motivate people and support recovery.