Alcohol, drugs, gambling, chemsex, smoking and compulsive habits sit under one word and go to five different places. This section keeps them apart, because the service you need differs.
Specialist help comes first on every page here. Talking support has a real place, and it comes after, because it works alongside treatment rather than instead of it.
Two things to know before you read on
First, someone who has passed out or cannot be woken after drinking or taking something needs emergency care. The alcohol and drugs page carries the full NHS guidance.
Second, do not stop drinking suddenly on your own. The NHS says that can be very dangerous if you are dependent on alcohol.
Speak to a GP or your local alcohol service before you stop.
Sources: NHS: alcohol poisoning, NHS: alcohol misuse treatment
Where to start
Pick the one that fits. Each page carries its own specialist services, and every one of them is free.
If it is someone else who is struggling
Living with a partner, parent or child's addiction is its own experience. There is support for you in your own right.
That is a different page, written for you rather than for them: someone else's addiction.
What we can and cannot do
A professional found here does not treat dependence. NHS Talking Therapies says the same of itself. It does not provide specific interventions to treat drug and alcohol misuse.
What talking support does hold is everything around it. The low mood, the anxiety, the trauma, the shame, the relationship that is buckling under it.
Many people arrive at a specialist service and find those things surface once the substance is not doing the muffling. That is the point where a professional helps most.
References
Alcohol and Drugs
Free NHS and charity services treat drinking and drug problems, and you can refer yourself. Talking support works alongside them, never instead.
Start here ifdrinking or drugs are the problem, or someone has told you they are
Chemsex
Chemsex means using particular drugs during sex. Two UK services work with the drugs and the sex together, without judgement about either.
Start here ifdrugs and sex have become the same thing for you
Compulsive Habits
Gaming, shopping, work and sex can all become compulsive. No single national service covers them, so a GP comes first and talking support does the rest.
Start here ifgaming, shopping, work or sex is the thing you cannot stop
Gambling
Gambling harm is treated apart from drugs and alcohol. The NHS runs clinics you can refer yourself to, and the national helpline is free and open 24/7.
Start here ifbetting has taken hold, or the debt has started to frighten you
Smoking
Free NHS stop smoking services give you an adviser and stop smoking medicines. Talking support helps with what the cigarettes were doing for you.
Start here ifyou want to stop smoking or vaping and it has not stuck before
