Recovery Support Groups
Note: The descriptions of the groups below are from Wikipedia. Links to the Wikipedia article, the groups home page, and meeting locators are posted below each entry.
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship[1] founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. AA's stated "primary purpose" is to "stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety". With other early members, Bill Wilson and Bob Smith developed AA's Twelve Step program of spiritual and character development. AA's initial Twelve Traditions were introduced in 1946 to help the fellowship be stable and unified while disengaged from "outside issues" and influences.
The Traditions recommend that members remain anonymous in public media, altruistically help other alcoholics, and that AA groups avoid official affiliations with other organizations. They also advise against dogma and coercive hierarchies. Subsequent fellowships such as Narcotics Anonymous have adopted and adapted the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions to their respective primary purposes.
Narcotics Anonymous
Narcotics Anonymous (NA) describes itself as a "nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem". Narcotics Anonymous uses a traditional 12-step model that has been expanded and developed for people with varied substance abuse issues and is the second-largest 12-step organization.
As of May 2016 there were more than 67,000 NA meetings in 139 countries.
Smart Recovery
SMART Recovery (Self Management and Recovery Training) is an international non-profit organization which provides assistance to individuals seeking abstinence from addictive behaviors. The approach used is secular and scientifically based using non-confrontational motivational, behavioral and cognitive methods. Meeting participants learn recovery methods derived from evidence-based addiction treatments.[citation needed] Substance/activity dependence is viewed by the organization as a dysfunctional habit (rather than a disease), while allowing that it is possible that certain people have a predisposition towards addictive behavior.
Women for Sobriety
A non-profit organization dedicated to helping women discover an abstinent New Life. It is the first self-help recovery program based on the unique emotional needs of women. WFS was founded in July, 1975, and has been helping women in recovery from alcohol and drug addictions for over 40 years.
InTheRooms.com
InTheRooms.com is the World's Largest, Online Social Network for the Global Recovery Community. InTheRooms is for people already in Recovery, Seeking Immediate Help from any Addiction, and their Family, Friends and Allies. You will have unlimited access to over 117 live online Recovery meetings weekly. ITR offers AA, NA, and other 12 Step and non 12 Step Support Groups, Geo Locatable Global Meeting Finder, Daily E Meditations, Afternoon Affirmations, Free iPhone and Android Apps, Speaker Tape Library and much more.
Life Ring - Secular Recovery
LifeRing Secular Recovery is an organization of people who share practical experiences and sobriety support. There are as many ways to live free of illicit or non-medically indicated drugs and alcohol as there are stories of successful sober people. Many LifeRing members attend other kinds of meetings or recovery programs, and we honor those decisions. Some have had negative experiences in attempting to find help elsewhere, but most people soon find that LifeRing’s emphasis on the positive, practical present-day can turn anger and despair into hope and resolve. LifeRing respectfully embraces what works for each individual.
The Satanic Temple - Sober Faction
The Satanic Temple Sober Faction provides peer support recovery for addiction free from the pseudoscience and superstitious dogma entrenched in most mainstream programs.
PATH - Addiction and Trauma Healing
PATH is an international non-profit organization centered on improving the lives of people all over the world struggling with addiction and trauma. As a voice for recovery, we bring individuals together, creating compassionate, HEART-centered communities where people can grow and thrive by healing from addiction and recovering from trauma.
We are guided by Internal Family Systems, Mindful Self-Compassion, body-oriented healing, and trauma-informed practices, seeking to embody a sense of safety and care as we heal.
Harm Reduction Coalition
Harm Reduction Coalition was founded in 1993 and incorporated in 1994 by a working group of needle exchange providers, advocates and drug users. Today, we are strengthened by an extensive and diverse network of allies who challenge the persistent stigma faced by people who use drugs and advocate for policy and public health reform.
Harm Reduction Coalition is a national advocacy and capacity-building organization that promotes the health and dignity of individuals and communities impacted by drug use. Our efforts advance harm reduction policies, practices and programs that address the adverse effects of drug use including overdose, HIV, hepatitis C, addiction, and incarceration. Recognizing that social inequality and injustice magnify drug-related harm and limit the voice of our most vulnerable communities, we work to uphold every individual’s right to health and well-being and their competence to participate in the public policy dialogue.
Refuge Recovery
A Buddhist Path to Recovering From Addiction
Refuge Recovery is a Buddhist-oriented path to freedom from addiction. This is an approach to recovery that understands: “All individuals have the power and potential to free themselves from the suffering that is caused by addiction.” We feel confident in the power of the Dharma, if applied, to relieve suffering of all kinds, including the suffering of addiction. This is a process that cultivates a path of awakening, the path of recovering from the addictions and delusions that have created so much suffering in our lives and in this world.
Refuge Recovery is a systematic approach to training our hearts and minds to see clearly and respond to our lives with understanding and non-harming. You are entering a way of life that may be familiar to some and foreign to others. In the beginning some of it may seem confusing or counter-instinctual, and some of it is. But you will find that with time, familiarity and experience, it will all make perfect sense and will gradually become a more and more natural way of being.
Celebrate Recovery
Celebrate Recovery is a recovery program aimed at all "hurts, habits, and hang-ups", including but not exclusive to: high anxiety; co-dependency; compulsive behaviors; sex addiction; financial dysfunction; drug and alcohol addictions; and eating disorders. Celebrate Recovery is one of the seven largest addiction recovery support group programs. Promotional materials assert that over 3.5 million people have participated in a Celebrate Recovery step study in over 29,000 churches [better source needed] Approximately two-thirds of these participants are in recovery for something other than drugs or alcohol. Leaders seek to normalize substance abuse as similar to other personal problems common to all people.
Celebrate Recovery uses both the 12 steps developed by Alcoholics Anonymous and a very similar set of eight sequential principles that are understood as a lesson of Jesus' Beatitudes. In addition to issue non-specific large group gatherings and individual mentoring, Celebrate Recovery encourages participants to form a small group of "Accountability Partners" who all have the same problem and support one another closely. Celebrate Recovery groups are held under the management of local church organizations. A study of Celebrate Recovery participants found that levels of spirituality were associated with greater confidence to resist substance use. Celebrate Recovery has not been significantly studied, so there is no empirical evidence regarding the impacts or efficacy of Celebrate Recovery program.
Al-Anon
Al-Anon/Alateen, Al-Anon Family Groups and Al-Anon are different names for a "worldwide fellowship that offers a program of recovery for the families and friends of alcoholics, whether or not the alcoholic recognizes the existence of a drinking problem or seeks help." Alateen "is part of the Al-Anon fellowship designed for the younger relatives and friends of alcoholics through the teen years".
Nar-Anon
Nar-Anon, known officially as "Nar-Anon Family Groups", is a twelve-step program for friends and family members of those who are affected by someone else's addiction. Nar-Anon is complementary to, but separate from, Narcotics Anonymous (NA), analogous to Al-Anon with respect to Alcoholics Anonymous; Nar-Anon's traditions state that it should "always cooperate with Narcotics Anonymous."
Nar-Anon was founded by Alma B. in Studio City, California, but her attempt to launch the program failed. The organization was revived in 1968 in the Palos Verdes Peninsula by Robert Stewart Goodrich. Nar-Anon filed Articles of Incorporation in 1971, and in 1986 established the Nar-Anon World Service Office (WSO) in Torrance, California.[1] In 2006, Nar-Anon began holding bi-annual World Service Conferences, attended by delegates from each region, to approve literature and policies for Nar-Anon as a whole. Nar-Anon also offers the Narateen program, which is designed for teenage members of the Nar-Anon fellowship.
LifeRing
An abstinence-based, worldwide network of individuals seeking to live in recovery from addiction to alcohol or to other non-medically indicated drugs. In LifeRing, we offer each other peer-to-peer support in ways that encourage personal growth and continued learning through personal empowerment. Our approach is based on developing, refining, and sharing our own personal strategies for continued abstinence and crafting a rewarding life in recovery. In short, we are sober, secular, and self-directed.
Secular Organizations for Sobriety
Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) is a nonprofit network of autonomous, non-professional local groups, dedicated solely to helping individuals achieve and maintain sobriety/abstinence from alcohol and drug addiction, food addiction and more. Watch the award-winning short documentary about SOS!
WHITE BISON - Culturally-Based Healing to Indigenous People
Based in Colorado Springs and a proud facilitator of the Wellbriety Movement, White Bison provides sobriety, recovery, addictions prevention, and wellness/Wellbriety learning resources to the Native American/Alaskan Native community nationwide.
