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The practical part.

What to do tonight, what to change this week, and who to tell. Written for seventeen kinds of compulsion, and for the people walking alongside someone in recovery. Free to read, no account needed.

Browse by what you are working on

Alcohol

Cutting down, stopping, and getting through the first weeks.

12 guides

Drugs

Practical steps, withdrawal facts, and where help is free.

12 guides

Gambling

Self-exclusion, blocking, money, and the pull to chase losses.

12 guides

Social Media

Feeds, dopamine, and getting your evenings back.

12 guides

Pornography

Blocking, honesty, and rebuilding trust without shame.

12 guides

Sex addiction

Understanding compulsive sexual behaviour and finding support.

12 guides

Love and relationships

Attachment, intensity, and building relationships that hold.

12 guides

Nicotine and vaping

Quitting cigarettes and vapes, and surviving the cravings.

12 guides

Gaming

Session limits, sleep, and life outside the lobby.

12 guides

Compulsive spending

Debt, impulse buying, and the practical money steps.

12 guides

Food and eating

Binge cycles, restriction, and eating without a war on yourself.

12 guides

Streaming

Autoplay, lost nights, and reclaiming your attention.

12 guides

Work

Overworking, burnout, and learning to stop at a reasonable hour.

12 guides

Phone and screen

Screen time, notifications, and the first hour of the day.

12 guides

Dating Apps

Swiping loops, validation, and dating on purpose.

12 guides

Chatbot companions

Chatbot companionship, isolation, and keeping real relationships first.

12 guides

Other addictions

Compulsions that do not fit a box, and how to work with them.

12 guides

For supporters

For partners, parents and friends: what helps, what does not, and how to look after yourself.

12 guides

Latest
For supporters

When it is not addiction, it is abuse

The line is control, not substances. If you manage your own behaviour to avoid someone's reaction, patience is the wrong advice. The numbers to ring, with their real hours.

6 min read · 20 Sept 2026

Dating Apps

Dating on purpose, if you go back

A rule survives a lonely Sunday only if it is written down, has a number in it, and does not require you to decide anything at the time. Here are six that qualify.

6 min read · 20 Sept 2026

Work

Ambition without the compulsion

Stopping does not mean giving up. Ambition chooses and can wait; compulsion cannot stop. Here is a test that separates them, and what to keep once you know the difference.

6 min read · 20 Sept 2026

Food and eating

Eating out, holidays and other people

Eat your normal meals on the day of the meal out. Saving up is what turns a dinner into an episode, and the risky hour is usually after you get home.

6 min read · 20 Sept 2026

We've got you.

Guides are free to read and always will be. If something here helps, the app carries the same thinking into your day.

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Nicotine and vaping

Staying stopped past month three

Month three is when the support has ended, the cravings are rare and large, and the story becomes that you have proved you can stop. Three specific defences for it.

6 min read · 20 Sept 2026

Sex addiction

Building a sex life you choose

Abstaining is half a definition. How to write down what you are moving toward, what to do about masturbation, apps and fantasy, and how to tell a chosen sex life from a compulsive one.

7 min read · 20 Sept 2026

Social Media

Staying in touch without the feed

The feed was doing four separate jobs. Replace them one at a time: a group chat, one standing weekly thing, photos sent directly, and a birthday list you own.

6 min read · 20 Sept 2026

Alcohol

Socialising without alcohol

A plan for one social event with three moving parts: how you arrive, what is in your hand all evening, and how you leave. Plus which invitations to turn down for now, without apology.

7 min read · 20 Sept 2026

Other addictions

Replacing it with something real

Stopping leaves a gap the shape of whatever the behaviour was doing for you. Name the function, match the replacement to it rather than to the activity, and expect the substitute to feel worse at first.

6 min read · 19 Sept 2026

Phone and screen

A phone you use on purpose

Write down the eight things your phone is genuinely for. Everything else becomes a guest with no permissions. The configuration follows from the list, and no dumbphone is required.

6 min read · 19 Sept 2026

Streaming

Watching things you actually chose

Keep a short list, pick from it before you sit down, and close the app if nothing on the list appeals. The aim is not less television, it is watching on purpose rather than by default.

5 min read · 19 Sept 2026

Compulsive spending

Spending less without punishing yourself

A budget with nothing in it for you is a budget that collapses in week three and takes a large order with it. Build the room in on purpose, and put it in cash.

6 min read · 19 Sept 2026

Love and relationships

What a steady relationship feels like

Calm often registers as nothing, because you calibrated on intensity. Here is what steady looks like from the inside, how to tell it from indifference, and the mistake people make at three months.

6 min read · 19 Sept 2026

Pornography

Sex and intimacy after stopping porn

Realistic expectations for desire, erections and intimacy after you stop, an honest account of what the evidence does and does not say, and the point at which this is a GP appointment.

7 min read · 19 Sept 2026

Gambling

Life after gambling, and the hole it leaves

Flat, bored and wondering what the point is, months in. That is the stimulation gap, and it has to be filled deliberately rather than waited out.

6 min read · 19 Sept 2026

For supporters

Getting support of your own

Al-Anon, SMART Family and Friends, the 5-Step Method and a free council assessment nobody tells supporters about. What each asks of you, with accurate numbers and hours.

6 min read · 18 Sept 2026

Chatbot companions

Using a chatbot without it using you

A ceiling rather than a ban, and four rules that survive a bad night. Plus the monthly check that tells you honestly whether the ceiling is still holding.

6 min read · 18 Sept 2026

Work

Repairing what work took from home

Your family stopped expecting you, and apologies will not change that. Rebuild one relationship with small, boring, repeated reliability, and expect it to take longer than you think is fair.

6 min read · 18 Sept 2026

Food and eating

Your body, your clothes and the mirror

Two practical steps that cut daily body checking: get the scales out of the house, and wear clothes that fit the body you have this week.

6 min read · 18 Sept 2026

Gaming

Playing again without losing the week

Limits hold when they are shaped like sessions rather than hours, set before you sit down, and enforced by something outside your own head. Here is what to watch for when they stop holding.

6 min read · 18 Sept 2026

Sex addiction

Repairing a relationship after betrayal

What actually helps a betrayed partner, why they need support that does not come from you, and the model of partner behaviour you should refuse to let anyone apply to them.

7 min read · 18 Sept 2026

Social Media

Getting your attention back

A trial that removed mobile internet for two weeks improved objectively measured sustained attention. Here is a fortnight of small practice built on that, and the honest limits.

6 min read · 18 Sept 2026

Drugs

Naloxone, and staying alive while you work it out

How to get a naloxone kit free in the UK without being in treatment, how to recognise an opioid overdose, and three harm-reduction habits for anyone not ready to stop.

7 min read · 18 Sept 2026

Other addictions

Repairing what it cost you

Start one repair, not all of them. Money first if money is involved, and in the right order, because most people pay the wrong debt first. Then time, then one relationship.

6 min read · 17 Sept 2026

Dating Apps

Rejection, validation and your self-worth

A match count measures a market's response to six photographs. It is not a measurement of you, and the fastest way to feel that rather than know it is to stop collecting the number.

6 min read · 17 Sept 2026

Streaming

Sleep debt, and how to pay it back

Fix the wake time first, move the bedtime fifteen minutes at a time, and do not try to clear it in one weekend. A fortnight of dull consistency beats any single heroic night.

6 min read · 17 Sept 2026

Compulsive spending

Facing the debt: a first plan

Three steps, in order, all free. Write the real total down, ring StepChange, and pay the quiet debts before the loud ones. The total is not the urgent part.

7 min read · 17 Sept 2026

Nicotine and vaping

Weight, mood and the things nobody warns you about

Taste and smell come back, appetite changes, mood dips and the cough can get worse before it gets better. What is ordinary, and what is worth taking to a GP.

6 min read · 17 Sept 2026

Pornography

Repairing trust after porn use

Three things that actually rebuild trust after a partner finds out, the one habit that quietly undoes all of them, and why your partner needs support that isn't you.

7 min read · 17 Sept 2026

Gambling

Gambling debt: what to do first

Block first, then free advice, then pay the quiet debts before the loud ones. Rent and council tax come before the credit card that is emailing you.

7 min read · 17 Sept 2026

Alcohol

Repairing what drinking cost

Start one repair, not all of them. Why money usually goes first, what free regulated debt advice actually does, and the difference between an apology and an amends.

7 min read · 17 Sept 2026

For supporters

When they relapse again

The first hour is safety, not conversation, because tolerance drops during a clean period. Then how to respond without either rescuing or walking away.

6 min read · 16 Sept 2026

Chatbot companions

Talking to real people again

Three steps, each smaller than you think. A transaction with a stranger, a message to someone who already likes you, then one recurring thing with a fixed time.

6 min read · 16 Sept 2026

Phone and screen

Mornings and nights, and getting them back

Two changes, one object each: the charger leaves the bedroom and a cheap alarm clock takes its place, and the first unlock is anchored to an event rather than a time.

6 min read · 16 Sept 2026

Food and eating

NHS treatment, Beat, and the fellowships

Treatment first, through a GP. Beat for support while you wait. And the question to ask any food fellowship before you join, because some of them prescribe the thing NICE advises against.

6 min read · 16 Sept 2026

Gaming

Sleep, work and getting your day back

Fix the wake time first and let the bedtime follow. Get the machine out of the bedroom. Expect two or three bad nights in the middle, because that is the part that makes people give up.

6 min read · 16 Sept 2026

Love and relationships

Being on your own without panicking

The panic lands in unstructured time, so build the week in blocks before the week starts. Two human contacts, a body block, and one dull competence block is the whole method.

6 min read · 16 Sept 2026

Social Media

Where to get support for compulsive scrolling

What actually exists in the UK: a fellowship that names social media directly and meets daily online, free CBT-based groups, and a GP conversation about what is underneath. Plus what does not exist.

6 min read · 16 Sept 2026

Drugs

Rebuilding money, work and trust

Start the repair that unblocks the others, which is usually money. Free regulated debt advice, what to do about a gap on your CV, and why trust moves at the speed of reliability.

7 min read · 16 Sept 2026

Other addictions

SMART Recovery, twelve steps or therapy

Three routes for a compulsion with no name. What each one asks of you, which ones need your problem to have a name, and how to check a therapist is who they say they are.

7 min read · 15 Sept 2026

Dating Apps

Meeting people away from the apps

Pick two routes, put them in the calendar as recurring, and judge them on whether you would still go if nobody attractive turned up. That test picks better than interest does.

6 min read · 15 Sept 2026

Work

Workaholics Anonymous, therapy or a new job

Work out which of the three is actually the problem first, using one test. Then here is what each route asks of you, what it costs, and how to check a therapist is who they say they are.

7 min read · 15 Sept 2026

Compulsive spending

Debtors Anonymous, StepChange or a money adviser

One of these deals with the debt, one deals with the behaviour, and one may not be aimed at you at all. What each actually is, and which to ring first.

6 min read · 15 Sept 2026

Nicotine and vaping

NHS stop smoking services, and what they offer

Free treatment, a named adviser and weekly contact. The NHS says using both together makes you up to three times more likely to stop for good. Here is how to get in.

6 min read · 15 Sept 2026

Sex addiction

SAA, SA and SLAA: how they differ

The three fellowships are not interchangeable. What each one means by sobriety, which one excludes people by design, and how to pick the room you can actually live inside.

7 min read · 15 Sept 2026

Gambling

Gamblers Anonymous, GamCare or the NHS clinic

Three different things behind three similar-sounding names. A 24 hour helpline, a fellowship you can walk into, and an NHS clinic with a catchment. What each one asks of you.

6 min read · 15 Sept 2026

Alcohol

AA, SMART Recovery or your GP

Three different doors with three different asks. What each one actually requires of you, what the evidence does and does not show, and how to pick without committing to a belief system.

7 min read · 15 Sept 2026

Chatbot companions

Where to get support for compulsive chatbot use

There is no NHS pathway and no diagnosis. What does exist: free peer meetings that name this directly, a GP conversation framed around loneliness, and Samaritans at any hour.

6 min read · 14 Sept 2026

Phone and screen

Where to get help for compulsive phone use

There is no NHS service for phone use and no diagnosis to be given. What does exist: a GP appointment framed around sleep and mood, a fellowship that names phone use directly, and free CBT-based groups.

6 min read · 14 Sept 2026

Streaming

Where to get support for compulsive watching

There is no NHS service and no clinical guidance for this, which is worth knowing before you go looking. What does exist: a GP who can treat what sits underneath, and one fellowship that names it directly.

6 min read · 14 Sept 2026

Gaming

Where to get help for gaming disorder

There is an NHS clinic for this, it takes self-referrals, and most people have never heard of it. Alongside it sit free peer routes, and each one treats a different thing.

6 min read · 14 Sept 2026

Love and relationships

SLAA, CoDA or therapy

Three routes, three different asks. SLAA wants you to define your own bottom lines. CoDA looks at how you relate rather than at one person. Therapy costs money and, in the UK, you check the credentials yourself.

7 min read · 14 Sept 2026

Pornography

SAA, SLAA or therapy

What each of the main fellowships actually believes about sobriety, what therapy has evidence for, and how to check a UK practitioner before you pay them anything.

7 min read · 14 Sept 2026

Drugs

NA, SMART Recovery or treatment

Three routes with three different asks. What NHS treatment gives you that a meeting cannot, what each fellowship requires abstinence from, and how to start one this week.

7 min read · 14 Sept 2026

For supporters

Protecting your money without cutting them off

Four practical steps to protect your own finances, which of your debts to pay first, and where UK debt advice is free. Minding about money is not cruelty.

6 min read · 13 Sept 2026

Dating Apps

Variable rewards and the swipe

Unpredictable rewards keep a behaviour going wherever they have been tested, and nobody has tested them inside a dating app. Here is what is mechanism, what is allegation and what is evidence.

7 min read · 13 Sept 2026

Work

Why rest feels like danger

Sitting still produces a physical alarm, not laziness. Here is what the reaction is, and a graded practice for sitting through it in ten-minute pieces rather than whole weekends.

6 min read · 13 Sept 2026

Food and eating

Restriction, and the binge that follows

Draw your own loop on one page: restrict, deprivation, binge, shame, restrict harder. Then find your version of the first link, which is rarely as obvious as skipping meals.

6 min read · 13 Sept 2026

Nicotine and vaping

Why quitting vaping is different

All-day dosing, no natural stopping point, and a research base built entirely on smokers. What actually transfers from smoking advice, and what you have to plan yourself.

6 min read · 13 Sept 2026

Sex addiction

Shame, and the loop it keeps running

Why feeling worse about it reliably produces more of it, and two specific moves that interrupt the loop: shortening the gap, and describing the behaviour instead of the person.

6 min read · 13 Sept 2026