The question that decides this is who gets to define sobriety. One fellowship hands that to you, one covers a much wider range of behaviour, and one has a fixed definition that excludes a great many people by design. Therapy is a fourth route with the best evidence behind it and the worst consumer protection in the UK. Here is what each one actually asks of you.
Start with the fork, not the acronyms
Every route in this space eventually asks the same question: what exactly are you stopping?
That sounds obvious until you're sitting in a room where somebody else has already answered it for you. People bounce out of support in the first fortnight not because the room was hostile but because its definition of the target didn't match the life they actually live. So read a fellowship's own sobriety page before you go, not a summary of it, and not a rehab website's description of it.
Sex Addicts Anonymous
SAA refuses to define abstinence for you. Its own material states that ["it is necessary for each member to define his or her own abstinence"](https://saa-recovery.org/our-program/sobriety/), and members do it using three concentric circles worked out with a sponsor: an inner circle of the behaviours you're calling acting out, a middle circle of what leads there, and an outer circle of what you do instead.
For a porn-focused reader this is usually the most workable fit, because your inner circle can be exactly what you want it to be. It also means the first weeks involve real work rather than a rulebook, which some people find liberating and others find slippery.
Meetings run in person and online across the UK. The SAA UK helpline is 0800 917 8497.
Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous
SLAA covers the widest range: compulsive sexual behaviour, but also romantic obsession, fantasy, serial relationships, and the avoidant side of the same thing, which the fellowship calls sexual and emotional anorexia. Members define bottom-line behaviours in a similar way to SAA.
It's the better fit if porn is one strand of something broader, particularly if you recognise the pattern of chasing people as well as content, or if your version of this includes long periods of shutting down completely. Regional coverage in the UK is good and much of it is online.
Sexaholics Anonymous
SA is a different proposition and you should know that before you walk in rather than after.
Its sobriety definition is fixed and published. For a married member it means no form of sex with self or with anyone other than the spouse, and ["the term 'spouse' refers to one's partner in a marriage between a man and a woman."](https://www.sa.org/) For anyone unmarried it means freedom from sex of any kind. Masturbation is out for everybody.
Read literally, that leaves a gay or lesbian person in a legal UK marriage with no sober state available other than lifelong celibacy.
Some people find that level of definiteness steadying, and it would be dishonest to pretend nobody has recovered in those rooms. Others will find no version of their life in it at all. Both reactions are reasonable, and the point of putting the definition on this page is that you get to make that decision with the information rather than discover it in week two.
Therapy, and what it's actually shown
This is where the evidence sits, and it's better than you might expect and thinner than the marketing suggests.
A 2025 meta-analysis of 20 studies and 2,021 participants found that people receiving psychotherapy, mostly cognitive behavioural therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy, ["improved significantly more than controls on PPU, frequency/duration of pornography use, and sexual compulsivity, with large effect sizes"](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40126561/). The same paper says plainly that "these findings are limited by methodological issues, including the high risk of bias identified."
For compulsive sexual behaviour more broadly, a preregistered systematic review found [24 studies in total, of which only four were randomised controlled trials](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36083776/), with early support for cognitive behavioural approaches and a caution that strong conclusions about which treatment does what should be drawn carefully.
So: evidence-based, in the real sense that trials exist and point the right way. Not proven, and nobody should be selling you a cure.
The UK problem you need to know about
Two facts change how you should shop for this.
**There is essentially no NHS pathway.** An NHS sexual health service states it outright: ["We are not able to offer services for sexual addiction and sexual compulsion problems, including porn use."](https://www.sexualhealthoxfordshire.nhs.uk/services/psychosexual-therapy/sex-addiction/) It signposts outward instead. Your GP is still worth seeing, because low mood, anxiety and sleep problems sitting underneath this are treatable on the NHS, and because compulsive behaviour is sometimes a side effect of prescribed medication.
**Nobody regulates the title.** The Professional Standards Authority is explicit: psychotherapists ["are not regulated by law, but can choose to join an Accredited Register."](https://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/practitioners/psychotherapist) "Counsellor", "psychotherapist" and by extension "sex addiction therapist" can be printed on a website tomorrow by anyone.
So do this before you pay a penny.
- **Ask which Accredited Register they're on**, then look them up on that register yourself rather than trusting a logo on a homepage.
- **Check the Professional Standards Authority accredits that register.**
- **Ask what they think about pornography use in general.** If any use at all is the problem in their model and that isn't what you believe, you'll spend the year arguing rather than working.
- **Ask how they work with sexual orientation.** The answer tells you fast whether you'll leave lighter or heavier.
- **Ask what a course of work looks like and what it costs.** Vagueness here is a signal.
How to choose, practically
- **Porn only, and you want to keep it that way?** SAA, because you write your own inner circle. Add therapy if a few months of meetings doesn't move it.
- **Porn plus chasing people, or long shutdowns?** SLAA, whose scope covers both directions.
- **You want a fixed external rule and the definition fits your life?** SA is the one that provides that. Read its sobriety page in full first.
- **Want to understand why it's happening, not just stop it?** Therapy, cognitive behavioural or acceptance based, checked as above.
- **Skint?** Fellowships are free and mostly online. That's not a consolation prize. A room and a sponsor have kept a lot of people going where nothing else was available.
- **Both is normal.** Plenty of people run a fellowship and a therapist at once and the combination is often better than either.
Whatever you pick, [how to stop using porn](/guides/pornography/how-to-stop-using-porn) covers the practical layer underneath all of it, which is friction on your devices and one person who knows. No route replaces that.
What a bad room or a bad practitioner feels like
Trust this signal. If you leave feeling dirtier than when you arrived, week after week, that's information about the service and not about you.
Specific things worth walking away from: your sexuality being treated as the disorder, a practitioner who won't name their register, a group that pressures you into disclosing to your partner on their timetable, and anyone charging urgently for a programme that promises a cure. An international expert panel on compulsive sexual behaviour opposed approaches that would ["increase the experience of discrimination, stigma, and moral incongruence"](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11214846/). That's a professional standard, not a preference.
One reassurance about the timing. Across 42 countries and 82,243 people, ["only 4-10% of individuals in the PPU+ group had ever sought treatment"](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38413365/). If it took you years to type this into a search bar, you're in very ordinary company.
Common questions
**What's the difference between SAA and SLAA?** Scope, mostly. SAA is focused on compulsive sexual behaviour and lets each member define their own abstinence. SLAA covers a wider field including romantic obsession, fantasy and avoidance. Both use member-defined bottom lines rather than a single fixed rule.
**Are these fellowships religious?** They use the twelve-step framework, which is spiritual in language and not tied to a denomination. UK meetings vary a lot in how much of that language is present. If it's a barrier, go to two different meetings before deciding, because they are genuinely not the same room.
**Do I have to tell my partner to join a fellowship?** No fellowship requires disclosure as a condition of attending. Some rooms will encourage it and some sponsors will push. Disclosure is a serious piece of work with real consequences for another person, and it should happen on a considered timetable. [Telling your partner about porn](/guides/pornography/telling-your-partner-about-porn) covers how.
**Is there NHS help for porn use?** Not as a dedicated pathway, and at least one NHS service says so publicly. Your GP is still the right first call for the depression, anxiety or sleep problems that often sit underneath it, and for checking whether any medication you take is contributing.
**How much does private therapy cost?** It varies widely by region and practitioner, and this page won't quote a figure it can't source. Ask on the first call, ask whether they offer reduced-rate slots, and remember that fellowships cost nothing while you decide.
Sources
- [SAA on sobriety](https://saa-recovery.org/our-program/sobriety/). Members define their own abstinence, worked through inner, middle and outer circles.
- [Sexaholics Anonymous](https://www.sa.org/). The fellowship's fixed sobriety definition, including how it defines "spouse".
- [Psychotherapy for problematic pornography use, meta-analysis, 2025](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40126561/). 20 studies, 2,021 participants, large effect sizes alongside a high risk of bias.
- [Professional Standards Authority](https://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/practitioners/psychotherapist). Psychotherapists are not regulated by law in the UK.
