When Professional help seems out of reach, we recommend these organizations that have profoundly impacted us or the people we love.
National Alliance On Mental Illness
NAMI offers free support groups for families and individuals affected by mental illness. I have recommended them to several people, and they have reported that it was the "best thing that ever happened to them."
We can't say enough about AA. It has by far helped more people recover from alcoholism than any other approach.
Recovery Dharma - A Buddhist approach to recovery from all addictions and process addictions, including substance, people addictions, disordered eating, gambling, sex, or anything you find adversely affecting your life.
Refegue Recovery: The same principles as Recovery Dharma. This was the original Buddhist-based recovery group.
Al-Anon. We highly recommend it if you have lived with a problem drinking with a relative or a friend.
CoDA: " Somewhere along the line, we learned to doubt our perception, discount our feelings, and overlook our needs. We looked to others to tell us what to think, feel, and behave. Other people supplied us with information about who we were and should be. It became more important to be compliant or avoidant rather than to be authentic, and we adopted rigid beliefs about what “should be.” We believed that if we could just “get it right,” things would be okay. When we “got it wrong,” our sense of security and self-worth evaporated."
Adult Children of Alcoholics®& Dysfunctional Families "We were all profoundly affected by the dysfunction in our families of origin, whether alcohol was present in the home or not. Consequently, we developed a set of “laundry list” traits that helped us survive that experience. These traits may have been adaptive at the time but have now come to substantially disrupt our lives. "
Emotions Anonymous was formed by a group of individuals who found a new way of life by working the Twelve-Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous, as adapted for people with emotional problems." — Preface of Emotions Anonymous
Anxiety and Depression Association of America - Free support groups
Food Addicts Annonymous - "Food Addicts Anonymous is an organization that believes that food addiction is a biochemical disease that occurs at a cellular level and therefore cannot be cured by willpower or by therapy alone. We feel that food addiction is not a moral or character issue. This Twelve Steps program believes that food addiction can be managed by abstaining from (eliminating) addictive foods, following a program of sound nutrition (a Food Plan), and working the Twelve Steps of the program. After we have gone through a process of withdrawal from addictive foods, many of us have experienced miraculous lifestyle changes."
Overeaters Anonymous (OA) is a community of people who support each other in order to recover from compulsive eating and food behaviors. We welcome everyone who feels they have a problem with food.