Healthy living Managing addiction with a self-help group

Consuming legal or illegal addictive substances and engaging in habit-forming behaviors like gambling can cause a great deal of suffering and result in addiction. Many people in Germany have issues with addiction. When a person’s life begins to be controlled by their addiction, it can be very difficult to break free. Even after therapy, it takes no small effort to keep an addiction under control in the long term. Self-help for addiction supports people with addictions during, after or independently of professional therapy and medical treatment. A wide range of self-help associations and groups are available for different addictions.

In these groups, people with an addiction problem and their loved ones can share their experiences with people in similar situations, increase their health literacy and improve their quality of life. All of the people in the group are either in a similar situation currently or have been in the past. Sharing personal experiences in an open forum often makes it easier to cope with everyday life without addiction, build confidence and make new social contacts.

Self-help groups for addiction are organized on a voluntary basis – by people with addiction and their loved ones for people with addiction and their loved ones. The focus is on helping people to recognize, understand and manage their own addiction.

Meetings are held regularly. The group itself decides how the meetings are structured and the rules that apply. Everything discussed within the group is treated as confidential. The group is led by a volunteer with personal experience of addiction.

Self-help groups encourage and support people with addiction to reorient their lives by setting goals that promote health. For many people, this means maintaining permanent abstinence. In other cases – for example, with behavioral addictions – a self-help group can help the person to take control of their addictive behavior. Loved ones are encouraged to focus more on their own lives again.

Various studies have demonstrated that this approach can be successful. For example, one survey found that only 13 percent of the members of various self-help groups had experienced a relapse. Of these, more than three-quarters had found their way back to a life without addiction thanks to self-help.

Members of a self-help group help one another to maintain their recovery and enjoy a greater quality of life on a daily basis. They can do so in many different ways – by encouraging one another and sharing information, providing practical support and tips for dealing with the risk of relapse, taking part in training sessions and engaging in shared, addiction-free activities.

Many people with an addiction and their loved ones also find that self-help groups help them to overcome feelings of loneliness, isolation and shame. The self-help group provides a source of support when family or friends may turn away. The group members accept the person with the addiction and help them see things from different perspectives.

Many local and regional self-help groups for addiction are organized into associations. National associations represent the common interests of groups and their members. Most national associations are members of the German Center for Addiction Issues (DHS).

On its website, DHS lists contact details for nationwide self-help associations and local addiction counseling services. These can also help you find a self-help group for addiction.

In addition to face-to-face meetings, self-help is also available in various other digital formats. These include group meetings via video conference, hybrid meetings, chats, podcasts and online communities.

The following links provide information about the regional groups of self-help associations, professional associations and welfare associations:

• German Blue Cross (Blaues Kreuz in Deutschland e.V.)
• Evangelical Blue Cross (Blaues Kreuz in der Evangelischen Kirche e. V.) – national association
• Friendship Groups for Addiction Support (Freundeskreise für Suchtkrankenhilfe e. V.)
• German branch of the International Order of Good Templars (Guttempler in Deutschland e. V.)
• Kreuzbund e. V. – a self-help and support community for people affected by addiction and their loved ones
• National Association of Parent Groups with Children at Risk of or Suffering from Drug Addiction (Bundesverband der Elternkreise suchtgefährdeter und suchtkranker Söhne und Töchter e. V.)
• Alcoholics Anonymous (Anonyme Alkoholiker Interessengemeinschaft e. V.)
• Frau.Sucht.Hilfe Bundesverband e. V. – an association for women affected by addiction and loved ones
• German Red Cross (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz e.V – Generalsekretariat)
• Professional Association for Gambling Addiction (Fachverband Glücksspielsucht e. V.)
• Narcotics Anonymous (Narcotics Anonymous Regions-Service Komitee e. V.)

Five self-help associations in Germany have come together to create a Google Maps view showing where self-help groups can be found around the entire country.

Self-help contact and information points also serve as professional advice centers to help people find a self-help group.

You will find the addresses of self-help contact and information points in the database of the National Contact and Information Point for Encouraging and Supporting Self-Help Groups (Nationale Kontakt- und Informationsstelle zur Anregung und Unterstützung von Selbsthilfegruppen – NAKOS).

More information about the organization and independence of self-help services and about how the interests of people with disabilities and chronic illnesses are represented at a political level is provided in our self-help topic overview.