Alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous AA: Including both Quitting and Moderating Drinking

The best part about Swan was they also allowed us to use their facility as a safe place to inject heroin and other drugs. They would monitor us while we were in the restroom working up. I went there for 3 years, and during this time, they reversed many overdoses and never lost a life. Along this path, I stumbled into a CASAC 350-hour training program, a twist I didn’t anticipate but welcomed like an old friend, opening the doors to becoming a substance abuse counselor in New York. I started to meet with my counselor a couple of times a week for actual person-centered therapy sessions. Then, I enrolled in outpatient treatment so I could work towards sorting out my past trauma and self-hate.

Avoid Old Routines and Habits

• Fortunately, if AA doesn’t work for you, there are other choices.
• If this perspective is a reason you want to stop drinking without AA, these won’t be suitable.
• Toxic celebrity culture has long seen Hollywood’s biggest names fall victim to alcoholism or their lives derailed as a result of dangerous drinking habits.
• Created my own support communityMy support system included a therapist, a mentor, classmates and a spiritual community via my Spiritual Psychology program.2.
• The SMART in SMART Recovery stands for Self Management and Recovery Training.
• Having a chaotic or disorganized lifestyle can also hinder your recovery.

It’s clean, simple, and gives you time to figure yourself out and make a longer-term plan. If you haven’t been to a meeting, going to one during this time will give you valuable insight as to whether it’s for you or not, and you can adjust accordingly. I’ve said before in other posts that at this point I don’t think about sobriety or “not drinking” that much anymore. Sometimes I wish I could “be normal” like everybody else. I’ll even admit that if I could drink moderately, I’d still be an occasional drinker. No support group aimed at quitting alcohol forever will work for you if you don’t really want to quit.

• I know these things are true because I have sat in rooms around the world and listened, for hundreds of hours, to the experiences others have had with alcohol.
• Either way, you need to be comfortable with who you are and where you’re at on your path and at that time I just wasn’t there.
• Our licensed clinicians can prescribe Food and Drug Administration-approved naltrexone for AUD.

How To Quit Drinking Without AA

MM holds that problem drinking is not always the same thing as addiction, and in less severe instances, individuals may be able to moderate their drinking instead of abstaining completely. Moderation may not be the best strategy for everyone, MM acknowledges, but it may work well for some. WFS uses 13 acceptance statements to support its “New Life” Program that asks members to focus getting sober without aa their energies on positivity over negativity. Efforts are made to accept thoughts and actions as self-destructive, learn how to cope with the emotions and behaviors that are created through alcohol addiction, and then overcome them. Women are encouraged to go over the 13 acceptance statements each morning and then work through them throughout the day, reflecting on them each night.

Change your social scene

Club Soda offers a variety of mindful drinking and sobriety courses, but keep in mind that this platform is not a replacement for an alcohol addiction recovery program. Like Tempest, Hello Sunday Morning recognizes that you don’t need to have a clinical addiction in order to change your drinking habits. Whether you just want to learn how to limit your drinking, take a break or just better understand alcohol use, Hello Sunday Morning can help. Except she couldn’t find help in a way that worked for her — AA wasn’t her jam and inpatient/outpatient care cost way too much. So she created Tempest, which provides a mobile, self-directed yet supported method to get and stay sober.

Types of AA Meetings

With so many options, it’s always a good idea to talk to professionals. They can help you decide what treatment methods are right for you. Search our rehab directory to find the nearest treatment center to you.

AA Meetings in Nearby Cities

Though AA may be the most well-known solution for alcohol abuse, it is far from the only one. There are many alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous, including The Sinclair Method, moderation, cognitive behavioral therapy, therapy, coaching, and Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT). Our treatments are tailored to serve each person’s unique needs and you can read about both Oar members who want to quit drinking entirely as well as Oar members who want to moderate their drinking. SMART stands for “Self-Management and Recovery Training.” While its effectiveness and success is well documented, it is also clear that it does not work for everyone. A 2002 study with 279 people compared AA or similar 12-step programs with other forms of psychosocial treatment.

Sobriety in AA: We made changes to stop drinking

Getting sober may seem difficult, but there are strategies you can use to get and maintain sobriety. Some are structured in programs, such as the 12-step approach used by Alcoholics Anonymous and similar addiction recovery programs. For many people with a substance use disorder, it’s simply a matter of never having learned the appropriate way to manage anger. Talk to your therapist, other healthcare provider, or sponsor about how to deal with your anger in ways that won’t cause you to harm yourself or others or turn to alcohol or drugs. If you find it difficult to make new, sober friends, try joining a support group. Spending more time with supportive loved ones and planning activities for the entire family can also help you develop a healthier lifestyle and avoid situations in which you would normally drink or use drugs.

• Always talk positive on your social media profiles or home.
• I’d get high once in a while when I had to cop for friends driving down to NYC from upstate.
• I’ve also witnessed the fantastic potential and empowerment that often emerges by building relationships with people in recovery.
• If you’re worried but haven’t yet reached your bottom, it could be worth checking them out.

SMART Recovery