5 Alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
Treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) often involves a combination of behavioral therapies, medications, and support groups. One of the most well-known support options is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), a 12-Step program with millions of members worldwide. While AA has helped many people achieve and maintain recovery, it isn’t the right fit for everyone. Fortunately, there are several alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous that offer different approaches to recovery.
What is Alcoholics Anonymous?
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a 12-Step program and one of the most popular forms of recovery support. AA is a peer-led, self-help recovery program that emphasizes spiritual growth and encourages members to turn their lives over to a higher power as part of the healing process. AA members attend regular group meetings where they offer mutual support, share experiences, and work through the 12 Steps.
Many people in AA choose to work with a sponsor, who is someone further along in their recovery who can provide accountability and guidance. The program is guided not only by the 12 Steps, which focus on personal recovery, but also by the 12 Traditions of AA, which help maintain the integrity and unity of the program itself. While AA has helped many people maintain sobriety, its spiritual foundation and abstinence-based model may not resonate with everyone.
Alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous for Recovery
There are several alternatives to the 12-Step AA approach that may be more effective for some individuals. Five alternatives to AA include:
- SMART Recovery
- LifeRing
- Women for Sobriety (WFS)
- SOS (Secular Organizations for Sobriety)
- Moderation Management (MM)
Learn more about these non-AA recovery groups below.
1. SMART Recovery Groups for Alcohol Addiction
The SMART Recovery program is not based on a spiritual foundation like AA; instead, its foundation is research-based. This means that scientific research and evidence are used to support the techniques and methods that are promoted through this model.
SMART Recovery programs offer both local in-person meetings and online support through a 24/7 chat board and daily online meetings. SMART Recovery programs avoid labels, such as “alcoholic,” and shy away from the disease model of addiction. They focus on methods that use both motivational enhancement therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy components to engender change in self-destructive behaviors.
SMART Recovery is based on a four-point program that focuses on:
- Creating the motivation to change, building on it, and sustaining said motivation long-term.
- Learning how to manage and cope with cravings and urges.
- Finding ways to regulate thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
- Creating, sustaining, and learning how to live a balanced life.
SMART Recovery concepts help individuals recognize that alcohol misuse can be destructive and create emotional, physical, and social problems. Techniques aid in the exploration of maladaptive thoughts and unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as problematic drinking, and help to establish new and more balanced mechanisms of dealing with stress and managing difficult emotions.
2. LifeRing Alcoholism Recovery Program
With a bustling online community and local meetings throughout the United States, LifeRing Secular Recovery is a non-12-Step program that offers an alternative to AA. LifeRing believes that each individual holds the key to recovery, and it is not necessary to then place control in the hands of a spiritual being.
As a secular self-help group, LifeRing meetings and doctrine encourage members to maintain abstinence from drugs and alcohol and strive toward enhancing each person’s “sober self” while weakening their “addict self.” LifeRing concepts hold that everyone has a sober self inside them. The group works on developing techniques to enhance this version of self instead of the addict self, which has previously been in control of all decisions and led to destruction in life. Each person is encouraged to find a method of encouraging their sober self within a LifeRing program.
Peer support is a big part of LifeRing recovery programs, as individuals share advice with other members and offer support and encouragement in recovery. LifeRing focuses mainly on the present – on living a full and positive sober life without dwelling too much on past indiscretions and hurts that may have been the result of problematic drinking.
3. Women for Sobriety
Women for Sobriety (WFS) is a non-12-Step recovery program that is specifically engineered to focus on women’s treatment needs and what will best support their recovery. Face-to-face groups meet throughout the United States. The groups are led by moderators and serve to promote emotional and spiritual growth free from the bounds of alcohol abuse and addiction.
WFS uses 13 acceptance statements to support its “New Life” Program that asks members to focus 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.
The 13 acceptance statements walk women through taking responsibility for the disease of alcohol addiction; they state that negative thoughts are destructive, happiness is a choice, the past is in the past, and love and acceptance are important tools for spiritual and emotional growth. Women also take responsibility for their own actions, understanding that each person is in control of their own happiness, and each woman is worthwhile and competent.
WFS provides a gender-specific support system for encouragement and growth for women in recovery.
4. SOS Alcoholism Program
Secular Organizations for Sobriety is not one specific program but rather a collection of non 12-Step alcohol support groups that are autonomous from each other. SOS provides individuals with alternatives to spirituality-based recovery programs. SOS hosts both online and physical face-to-face non-12-Step meetings to help people overcome any form of addiction, from behavioral addictions to drug and alcohol addictions.
These programs offer support and encouragement for people who may wish for a different motivation or foundation than one based on spirituality and relinquishing control. Instead, individuals are encouraged to take on their own weaknesses, learn to accept them, and move forward in recovery. SOS-supported groups are nonprofessional and offer a healthy network of individuals with a similar goal of sobriety.
5. Moderation Management Support Groups
Moderation Management (MM) is very different than many other recovery and support groups in that it doesn’t require complete abstinence to be a member. Instead, MM focuses on helping people to manage problematic drinking and behaviors that are destructive, aiding in encouraging positive lifestyle changes. MM is a peer-support program that acknowledges that behaviors are changeable, and that alcohol abuse (which differs from dependence) is a habit that can be altered.
MM understands that there are varying degrees of alcohol abuse and not everyone suffers from the severity of addiction; however, most people can benefit from learning how to change behaviors related to drinking that are problematic. 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.
The Moderation Management Steps of Change program works through nine steps in face-to-face meetings. The MM program and steps ask that members keep a diary of drinking patterns and behaviors, and detail all the issues that have been associated with drinking, both now and in the past. Individuals are then asked to go through 30 days of abstinence, where they stop drinking altogether. During that time, people are to develop coping mechanisms to avoid drinking when it’s warranted, to cut back on drinking, and to control drinking when they do engage in it.
Each individual in MM should establish their own personal goals for drinking or not drinking, as the case may be, and learn how to stay within these rules. Self-management and the elimination of behavioral and other issues associated with problem drinking are key components of the Moderation Management program.
Benefits of Support Groups for Alcohol Addiction Recovery
In addition to increasing rates of abstinence from alcohol, some studies show that recovery support from peers positively influences the participants’ perception of stress, provides more overall support, and greater quality of life.
A recent study reports the long-term benefits of support groups:
- Reduced rate of relapse.
- Increased satisfaction with the overall treatment experience.
- Increased treatment retention.
- Improved relationships with family, friends, and co-workers.
Because one of the underlying premises of recovery is hope, seeing people who have made the journey into long-term recovery inspires others who are beginning their own journey to recovery.
Find an Alcohol Recovery Program Near You
Whether you choose Alcoholics Anonymous, an alternative mutual support group, or a different path entirely, the important thing to remember is that recovery is possible, and you don’t have to go through it alone. Programs like AA can offer powerful community support, but they aren’t the only solution. Many people benefit from combining peer support with evidence-based treatment approaches like medical detox, inpatient addiction treatment programs, or outpatient rehab tailored to their individual needs.
You can take the next step and find rehabs near you that fit your needs using our search tool. Search by insurance provider, level of addiction treatment, location, and more.