How to find support with your recovery

Blogs | Personal stories | Recovery communities | Self-help/Peer support groups | Free apps to support recovery

There are a huge number of blogs devoted to the topic of recovery, especially in the US. Some of the best known are listed below:

Recovery Review (UK and US)
Recovery Review is a community of recovery-oriented experts from the UK and USA writing on addiction and recovery. Examples of recent posts include: The tortuous routes to rehab which considers the difficulties accessing treatment in the UK and Are we losing our humanity in addiction treatment? in which the author discusses how listening, empathising and taking time with patients in recovery are often far more valued than the drugs he prescribes.

Recovery Pathways (UK)
This blog, run by Dr David Best, aims to be an interactive resource about recovery research in the UK.

Selected papers of William L. White (US)
Updated each week, this blog contains nearly 400 articles relating to recovery. Topics cover everything from advocacy to stigma, the history of recovery, relapse and much more.

Club Soda (UK)
The aim of Club Soda is to help people be more mindful about their drinking, whether that be cutting down or quitting altogether. There is a free course to help you make the change, a supportive community to connect with, and regular blog posts.

Personal stories of recovery reveal how positive changes are possible. Here we share the accounts of those in treatment agencies as well as stories featuring in the news:

Recovery Voices – new website
Recovery Voices, developed by David Clark and Wulf Livingston, captures conversations about what works in supporting recovery from addiction, and in the development of peer-led recovery communities, from a range of individuals with lived experience, as well as friends of recovery. We highlight common messages and learnings, providing a resource for people working with, and supporting, recovery and recovery communities. We celebrate the lives and successes of recovering people and recovery communities, and in doing so enhance the visibility of recovery and highlight what can be achieved. We encourage the development of new peer-led recovery communities and their interaction with other initiatives | Recovery Voices, UK

Believe in people
The Change Grow Live website includes personal stories from people with very different experiences of drug problems and looks at how their lives have changed for the better.

Changing Lives – Recovery Talks podcast
Recovery Talks is a podcast from Changing Lives where people get together to share their thoughts, ideas and stories of recovery and what this means to them.

Phoenix Futures
Phoenix Futures offers the people using their services a platform to tell their stories and share their recovery journey.

Recovery Network Scotland
Personal stories reflecting on how peer support helped people recover from various mental health problems.

Recovery Storytelling Community (Facebook)
A US- based Facebook community about the power of storytelling and its role in recovering from whatever ails you. You’ll find story videos, prompts, tips, and conversations. All are welcome, but most of us are here because we’ve found healing in sharing our stories with each other.

ARCO -The Association of Recovery Community Organisations:
ARCO is a non-profit organisation which is led and managed by people in recovery and their allies. The aim is to educate the community thereby reducing stigma, to provide services to people in the early stages of recovery, and to advocate for policies that are supportive of recovery. Find out more and download useful resources, including a toolkit to help you set up a local group, on the FAVOR site

College of Lived Experience Recovery Organisations (CLERO)
“A LERO is an organisation of lived experience committed to recovery with a focus on autonomy.” The College of Lived Experience Recovery Organisations (CLERO) emerged during 2021 as a way to develop a Recovery Strategy that key leadership figures and organisations in the field can all sign up to. The focus is  on Lived Experience Recovery, an idea that has citizenship at its core. You can find out more about becoming a member here.

Club Soda
The aim of Club Soda is to help people be more mindful about their drinking, whether that be cutting down or quitting altogether. It includes a supportive community to connect with.

Alcoholic Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous enables people to come together to share their experiences and strengths to help solve their common problem of alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

SMART Recovery
SMART Recovery helps participants decide whether they have a problem, builds up their motivation to change and offers a set of cognitive behavioural tools and techniques to support recovery.

Breaking free
Breaking free uses evidence-based digital behaviour change interventions that use proven behavioural science to empower people to overcome problem drinking, drug misuse and smoking.

Al-Anon
Al-Anon meetings aim to provide a safe place where relatives of someone with a drinking problem can come together and talk about their concerns and feelings.

Families Anonymous
Families Anonymous is a world-wide fellowship of family members and friends affected by another’s abuse of mind-altering substances, or related behavioural problems

Narcotics anonymous
N.A. is a non-profit organisation that enables people to come together to share their experiences and strengths to help solve their problematic drug use.

Cocaine Anonymous
Cocaine Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength and hope to solve their problem with cocaine use and help others to recover.

Adfam user forum
A forum for the families and friends of drugs users to support each other, ask questions and share experiences

SURE Recovery (Substance Use Recovery Evaluator)
This free app was designed to help people track their own recovery journeys and achieve their personal goals. The app has been developed with people at different stages of recovery and is based on their ideas and feedback.

DrinkCoach
Track and change your drinking for free. No advertising, no in-app purchases, no log-ins.

Your alcohol toolkit
This collection of tools from the charity, With You, will help you learn more about your drinking and improve your relationship with alcohol.

Other 50s alcohol health check
These quick questions from the charity, With You, will help you find out how alcohol impacts your health.

Sober Grid
Connect and chat anonymously with other people in recovery from around the world.

Smoke Free
Get help giving up smoking and help future quitters at the same time

Links in the Lived Experience section

Lived experience | Find a service | User rights and support networks | Harm reduction for drug users | Recovery Support | Events | Helpful services | Research resources