Three things exist and one does not. Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous names social media explicitly, meets online daily and costs nothing. SMART Recovery UK runs free groups on cognitive behavioural methods. Your GP is the route to whatever sits underneath the scrolling. What does not exist is an NHS service for this, and nobody is going to give you a diagnosis.
The honest map
| Where | What it is | How fast you can get there | |---|---|---| | Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous | Peer fellowship, names social media and phone use directly, free, mostly online, some UK in-person groups | Today | | SMART Recovery UK | Free groups built on cognitive behavioural methods, no higher power, no religious content | This week | | A GP | The route to talking therapy for what is underneath, and to anything about sleep or mood | Days to weeks | | Private therapy | Available immediately if you can pay. No guideline covers this specifically | This week, at a cost | | NHS service for social media use | Does not exist | Not available |
That last row is the one no other article says out loud. Knowing it in advance saves you a fortnight of searching and a phone call that ends in an apology.
Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous
This is the only fellowship that names your problem in its own words. Their opening line lists ["social media addiction, phone addiction, video addiction, television addiction, gaming addiction, news addiction..."](https://internetaddictsanonymous.org/) among the things people come to them for.
What it is like in practice. Meetings are free and open to anyone who thinks they have a problem with compulsive internet use. Most are online, most days, across time zones, so there is almost always one starting within a few hours. In the UK there are also in-person groups in London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Oxford.
It is a twelve step fellowship, which suits some people and not others. You are not required to speak, and going once to listen is an entirely normal thing to do. If the format is not for you, you will know inside one meeting, and you will have spent an hour finding out.
SMART Recovery UK
[SMART Recovery UK](https://smartrecovery.org.uk/faqs/) runs free groups using cognitive behavioural tools, with no religious content and no higher power required. Their materials are practical: motivation, coping with urges, managing thoughts and feelings, and building a life that does not need the behaviour.
One thing to expect. Their published list of what people come with names gambling, food, shopping and gaming rather than social media, so you may be the person in the room with a slightly different problem. In practice that is usually fine, because the tools are about urges rather than about substances, and everyone in the room understands the shape of an urge.
What to ask a GP for
You will not get a referral for social media use, because there is nothing to refer you to. That does not make the appointment pointless, it makes the framing important.
Go with the consequence rather than the label. "I am not sleeping and I am on my phone half the night." "My mood has been low for two months." "I cannot concentrate at work." Those are things a GP can act on: sleep, mood, anxiety, attention.
Bring one specific piece of evidence, such as your bedtime over the last fortnight, or the number of hours you lost this week. Ask directly what talking therapy is available locally and how long the wait is. If low mood is part of it, ask about that on its own terms rather than as a phone problem.
Before the appointment, it helps to have decided what you are describing. [The four questions that decide whether this is a problem](/guides/social_media/is-my-social-media-use-a-problem) is the shortest way to arrive with something clear to say.
Private therapy, and the honest caveat
You can find a therapist this week if you can pay for one. What you cannot find is one working from a guideline for this, because there is not one. NICE has no guidance on social media or screen use, and the only behavioural addiction with a NICE guideline is gambling.
So ask a practical question when you speak to someone: what do you actually do with a person who scrolls compulsively? A good answer is about the moments, the avoidance, the sleep, and whatever the scrolling is standing in front of. A bad answer promises to cure an addiction that has no agreed definition.
Look for someone registered with a recognised professional body, and be wary of any programme selling a fixed number of sessions for a condition nobody can diagnose.
The clinic that exists, and who it is for
There is one NHS service in this territory: the National Centre for Gaming Disorders, which offers ["support for people in England aged 13 and over"](https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/national-centre-gaming-disorders), accepts self-referrals as well as referrals from family and professionals, and provides cognitive behavioural therapy focused on controlled levels of gaming and increasing other activities.
Read the name carefully. It is for gaming, which is the one digital behaviour with a recognised condition behind it, and it does not cover social media. If gaming is genuinely part of your picture, it is a real route. If it is not, it will not take you. Gaming Addicts Anonymous also runs online meetings with a UK dial-in.
Support that is not a service
Most of what helps people here is not clinical, and it is worth saying plainly rather than treating it as second best.
**One person who knows.** Not an audience. One friend who will ask on Thursday and who is not shocked by any of it.
**Somebody holding the passcode.** A screen time code that another person sets and keeps is the cheapest external friction available. It has a known weakness, which is that a person who loves you will eventually give you the code at eleven at night, so pick someone who enjoys saying no. If you want a block that does not depend on somebody picking up, [Shield](/shield) is the part of Renovyn that keeps it in place across devices.
**A room with people in it.** Anything at a fixed time, weekly, with other humans. It fills the exact hours that the feed used to.
If it is heavier than a habit
Some of what people bring to this is a mood problem wearing a phone. The tell is that the feeling was there before you opened the app and is still there after a fortnight off.
That belongs with a person rather than a settings screen. In the UK, Samaritans is on 116 123, free, at any hour. For urgent mental health support, NHS 111 and press option 2. If the low mood is steady rather than acute, a GP appointment is the right start, and worth making before you try another fortnight of willpower.
If you want something to do between now and that appointment, [three changes that reduce pickups tonight](/guides/social_media/how-to-stop-doomscrolling) are the ones with evidence behind them.
Common questions
**Is there NHS treatment for social media addiction?** No. The NHS has one service in this area and it is for gaming. Social media, phone use and streaming have no service and no NICE guideline. A GP can still help with the sleep, mood or anxiety underneath, which is usually the more useful conversation anyway.
**Can I get a diagnosis?** No, and not because your problem is too small. Gambling disorder is the only behavioural addiction in the current diagnostic manual, and the proposed gaming condition explicitly excludes social media and smartphone use. Judge it by what it costs you instead.
**Are the meetings free, and do I have to speak?** Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous meetings and SMART Recovery UK groups are both free. You do not have to speak at either. Going once to listen is normal and nobody will make you introduce yourself as anything.
**What if I am not religious?** SMART Recovery is explicitly non-religious with no higher power. Twelve step fellowships use the language of a higher power, defined by each person, and plenty of members are not religious. If that language is a barrier, start with SMART.
Sources
- [Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous](https://internetaddictsanonymous.org/). The list of behaviours the fellowship covers, including social media and phone use, and their free meetings.
- [SMART Recovery UK, FAQs](https://smartrecovery.org.uk/faqs/). Free groups, cognitive behavioural methods, no religious content, and the behaviours they name.
- [National Centre for Gaming Disorders, CNWL](https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/national-centre-gaming-disorders). Support for people in England aged 13 and over, self-referrals accepted, and cognitive behavioural therapy focused on controlled gaming.
- [American Psychiatric Association, Internet Gaming](https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/internet-gaming). The proposed gaming condition excluding social media and smartphone use, and gambling disorder as the only behavioural addiction in DSM-5-TR.
