Getting Help

Resources from NIAAA

Treatment for Alcohol Problems: Finding and Getting Help
This guide from NIAAA is written for individuals, and their family and friends, who are looking for options to address alcohol problems. It is intended as a resource to understand what treatment choices are available and what to consider when selecting among them.

Rethinking Drinking: Alcohol and Your Health
For anyone who drinks, this site and booklet from NIAAA offers valuable, research-based information to help people to take a look at their drinking habits and how they may affect their health, and find ways to make a change.

Professional help

Your doctor. Primary care and mental health practitioners can provide effective alcoholism treatment by combining new medications with brief counseling visits. To aid clinicians, NIAAA has developed two guides: Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much, and for younger patients, Alcohol Screening and Brief Interventions for Youth: A Practitioner’s Guide. Both are available at www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/clinical-guides-and-manuals.

Specialists in alcohol use disorders. For specialty addiction treatment options, contact your doctor, health insurance plan, local health department, or employee assistance program. Other resources include:

Medical and non-medical addiction specialists

American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry
www.aaap.org
401–524–3076

American Psychological Association
www.apa.org
1–800–964–2000 (ask for your State’s referral number to find psychologists with addiction specialties)

American Society of Addiction Medicine
www.asam.org
301–656–3920 (ask for the phone number of your State’s chapter)

NAADAC Substance Abuse Professionals
www.naadac.org
1–800–548–0497

National Association of Social Workers
www.helpstartshere.org (search for social workers with addiction specialties)

Treatment facilities

Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Locator
www.findtreatment.samhsa.gov
1–800–662–HELP (1-800-662-4357)

Mutual-support groups

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
www.aa.org
212–870–3400 or check your local phone directory under “Alcoholism”

Moderation Management
www.moderation.org
212–871–0974

Secular Organizations for Sobriety
www.sossobriety.org
323–666–4295

SMART Recovery
www.smartrecovery.org
440–951–5357

Women for Sobriety
www.womenforsobriety.org
215–536–8026

Groups for family and friends

Al-Anon Family Groups
www.al-anon.org
1–888–425–2666 for meetings

Adult Children of Alcoholics
www.adultchildren.org
310–534–1815

Information resources

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
www.niaaa.nih.gov
301–443–3860

National Institute on Drug Abuse
www.drugabuse.gov
301–443–1124

National Institute of Mental Health
www.nimh.nih.gov
1–866–615–6464

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
www.samhsa.gov
1–800–729–6686