Whether you're exploring sobriety, navigating early recovery, or supporting someone you love, the path to healing can be complex—and you don’t have to walk it alone. Below are carefully curated resources to support a variety of recovery journeys, including both traditional and alternative approaches.
These tools, books, and organizations reflect an evidence-based, nonjudgmental approach to substance use and behavioral addiction recovery.
Emergency & Crisis Support
National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline – Call 988 Free and confidential emotional support for people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.
NYC Well – Call 1-888-NYC-WELL or Text "WELL" to 65173 Free mental health, substance use, and crisis support for New Yorkers.
Support Groups & Recovery Communities
AA Meetings – NY Intergroup: A searchable directory of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings across New York, offering peer support through the 12-step model.
SMART Recovery: A science-based, non-12-step program that focuses on building motivation, managing urges, and living a balanced life through CBT and REBT tools.
Recovery Dharma: A peer-led recovery community grounded in Buddhist principles, emphasizing mindfulness, self-inquiry, and compassion.
Informational & Educational Resources
This Naked Mind: A powerful resource for rethinking alcohol use through a lens of empowerment, neuroscience, and emotional insight.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): Evidence-based research, articles, and statistics on substance use, treatment options, and policy.
Recommended Books on Recovery
Self-Help & Clinical Resources
The Recovery Book: A thorough, step-by-step guide to recovery from addiction, covering detox, early sobriety, relapse prevention, and long-term growth.
The Addiction Recovery Skills Workbook: A practical, structured workbook integrating CBT, motivational interviewing, and relapse prevention skills.
Unbroken Brain: Maia Szalavitz reframes addiction as a learning disorder, offering compassion and insight alongside cutting-edge science.
Cruise Control: A candid guide to understanding and managing compulsive sexual behavior, with a focus on the experiences of gay men.
Memoir & Lived Experience
Dry: Augusten Burroughs shares a darkly funny, brutally honest account of his path through alcoholism and recovery.
Blackout: Sarah Hepola’s moving and unflinching memoir about memory, identity, and her journey through binge drinking and healing.
Beautiful Boy: A father’s intimate and emotional story of his son’s addiction, relapses, and recovery—offering a family perspective on addiction.
We Are the Luckiest: Laura McKowen explores the unexpected joy and meaning that sobriety can bring, even through pain and loss.