If you are physically dependent, the GP comes first regardless of which group you eventually choose, because medication and a supervised withdrawal are things only a prescriber can give you. After that, the choice between Alcoholics Anonymous and SMART Recovery is not about which is better. It is about which one's weekly ask you will actually keep doing. Both are free and neither excludes you from the other.
Start here if you drink daily
Stopping suddenly can be dangerous for someone who is physically dependent. The NHS says so directly: ["It can be very dangerous to stop drinking suddenly if you're dependent on alcohol."](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/alcohol-misuse/treatment/) No peer group can prescribe, and no meeting is a substitute for a medically assisted withdrawal.
Book the GP or self-refer to a local service first, and read [how to stop drinking](/guides/alcohol/how-to-stop-drinking) for the triage. Then come back to this page, because what keeps people stopped afterwards is usually not medical.
Route one: your GP and the NHS route
The NHS is blunt about where to begin: ["A good place to start is with a GP. Try to be accurate and honest about how much you drink and any problems it may be causing you."](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/alcohol-advice/alcohol-support/)
**What it asks of you.** One honest conversation with a real number in it, and then keeping appointments.
**What you get.** An assessment, a route into a free local service, and access to medication. That includes a benzodiazepine reducing regimen and thiamine if you need a supervised withdrawal, and acamprosate or naltrexone as ["first-line options"](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/clinical-guidelines-for-alcohol-treatment/10-pharmacological-interventions) for staying stopped afterwards. Most people do not know the second half of that exists, and it is worth raising yourself.
**What it does not give you.** Company on a Tuesday evening. NHS contact is measured in appointments, and the difficult part of this is measured in hours.
You can also skip the GP entirely and self-refer. We Are With You provides ["free and confidential support to adults and young people facing challenges with drugs, alcohol and mental health"](https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/help-and-advice/) across England and Scotland, with a webchat.
Route two: Alcoholics Anonymous
AA describes itself in its own words: ["A.A.'s primary purpose is to help alcoholics to achieve sobriety"](https://www.aa.org/what-is-aa), and it states plainly that it is ["not allied with any group, cause or religious denomination"](https://www.aa.org/what-is-aa).
**What it asks of you.** Turning up, repeatedly. Working a set of twelve steps, usually with a sponsor, which means one other person who has done them and will go through them with you. The steps use language about a power greater than yourself, which some people read as religious and others do not. The organisation's own position is that it is not tied to a denomination.
**What you get.** Meetings almost everywhere, at almost every hour, in person and online. A structure that does not depend on your local service having capacity. A named person to ring. For a lot of people the sponsor relationship is the part that does the work, not the steps.
**Where to start.** Alcoholics Anonymous Great Britain is 0800 917 7650, 24 hours. AA London is 020 7833 0022.
**Who tends to bounce off it.** People who cannot get past the wording, people who want a technique rather than a fellowship, and people who dislike the idea of describing themselves as powerless.
Route three: SMART Recovery
SMART is built on cognitive and rational-emotive behavioural methods and is explicitly secular. Its own framing is the opposite pole from powerlessness: ["The power to change addictive behaviors resides within each individual."](https://smartrecovery.org/about-us/)
**What it asks of you.** Attending a meeting run by a trained facilitator rather than a sponsor, and doing exercises. Cost-benefit analyses, urge-management tools, plans written down. It is closer to a workshop than to a fellowship.
**What you get.** A four-point programme with tools you can use alone between meetings, no requirement to accept any belief, and a format that works for people whose problem is not only alcohol.
**Where to start.** SMART Recovery UK is 0330 053 6022.
**Who tends to bounce off it.** People who wanted the human continuity of a sponsor, and people in areas where meetings are thin on the ground, which is still true in a lot of the UK.
Two more worth knowing about
**LifeRing** is secular, has no steps and no sponsors, and states its own position clearly: it ["is uncompromising about the need for abstinence, but very flexible about how you get there and stay there"](https://lifering.org/).
**Moderation Management** is not abstinence-based, which makes it different in kind rather than in degree. Its own boundary is the important part: it ["is best suited for people who are concerned about their drinking and are not experiencing signs of physical withdrawal"](https://moderation.org/). If you have morning shakes, this is not your route.
What the evidence actually says
This is where a lot of writing overclaims, so here it is with the caveat that most articles drop.
A Cochrane review found ["high quality evidence that manualized AA/TSF interventions are more effective than other established treatments, such as CBT, for increasing abstinence"](https://www.cochrane.org/evidence/CD012880_alcoholics-anonymous-aa-and-other-12-step-programs-alcohol-use-disorder).
The caveat is load-bearing. The high-certainty result is for **manualised Twelve-Step Facilitation**, which is a structured intervention delivered by a professional, not for the act of going to AA meetings. Cochrane separates the two itself, noting that non-manualised approaches may perform as well as other clinical interventions. And the review is disputed: Nick Heather has raised ["serious concerns about their external validity and, in particular, their implications for treatment delivery"](https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/56/4/377/6034029).
What that leaves you with is honest and reasonably useful. Structured twelve-step work has real evidence behind it. That evidence does not tell you that AA beats SMART for you personally, and nobody should pretend otherwise.
One neutral fact about how all of these are organised, from a government guideline rather than from a fellowship: twelve-step fellowships ["maintain independence from professional bodies and make sure they remain led by people in recovery in a volunteer capacity and do not accept funding from external sources"](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/clinical-guidelines-for-alcohol-treatment/6-recovery-support-services-and-lived-experience-initiatives).
How to pick this week
Stop trying to choose correctly and start collecting data.
- If you drink daily and heavily, book the GP first. That is not one of the three options, it is the precondition.
- Go to one AA meeting and one SMART meeting within the next fortnight. Online counts, and online is much easier for a first try.
- Judge each one on a low bar: did you feel less alone leaving than arriving, and could you imagine doing this weekly?
- Pick the one you would actually go back to, and go six times before deciding anything. One meeting tells you about that room and that evening, not about the organisation.
Plenty of people try one, dislike it, and get on perfectly well with the other. Plenty use a service and a group at the same time, which is normal rather than excessive.
What none of them do on a Tuesday at eight
All three are appointments, and the difficulty is not scheduled. Whatever you pick, you still need a plan for one specific evening, which is [a separate problem](/guides/alcohol/getting-through-tonight-without-a-drink), and a written plan for the situations you already know are risky, which is what [a relapse prevention plan](/spaces/how-to-prevent-relapse) is for.
Samaritans is 116 123 at any hour if the gap between meetings is where it gets bad.
Common questions
**Is AA religious?** AA states that it is not allied with any religious denomination. The steps use language about a power greater than yourself, which some members interpret spiritually, some interpret as the group itself, and some struggle with. If the wording is the obstacle, SMART Recovery and LifeRing are both explicitly secular.
**Do I have to say I am an alcoholic to go to AA?** The only requirement AA states for membership is a desire to stop drinking. What people say when they introduce themselves varies by room, and nobody can compel you to describe yourself in any particular way.
**Is SMART Recovery better than AA?** The evidence does not support that claim in either direction for an individual. What the research does show is that structured twelve-step facilitation, delivered professionally, performs well. Choose on which format you will keep attending.
**Can I do both?** Yes, and many people do, alongside a GP or a local service. None of these routes requires exclusivity.
**How much does any of this cost?** Nothing. AA, SMART Recovery, LifeRing, NHS treatment and free local services such as We Are With You are all free. If someone is selling you a residential placement before anyone has assessed you, ring a free service for a second opinion first.
Sources
- [NHS, Alcohol support](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/alcohol-advice/alcohol-support/), for starting with a GP and being accurate about how much you drink.
- [GOV.UK, UK clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment, pharmacological interventions](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/clinical-guidelines-for-alcohol-treatment/10-pharmacological-interventions), for acamprosate and naltrexone as first-line relapse prevention options.
- [Cochrane, Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programmes](https://www.cochrane.org/evidence/CD012880_alcoholics-anonymous-aa-and-other-12-step-programs-alcohol-use-disorder), for the manualised twelve-step facilitation finding.
- [Alcohol and Alcoholism, Heather](https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/56/4/377/6034029), for the external validity critique of that review.
