Mental Health Resources
- Grief Beyond Belief — Secular grief counseling
- Secular Therapy Project — Counseling / therapy info for non-religious persons, and help linking with a psychologist, therapist or counselor that respects and understands non-religious persons.
Religion Recovery
- The Clergy Project — Support group for ex / current clergy who no longer believe.
- Recovering from Religion — Support group for people who have left their faith or are in questioning.
- JW Support — Support group for people who want to leave the Jehovah’s Witness religious community.
- reddit.com/r/exjw — Support group / forum for ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses and those who want to leave the faith.
National Substance Use Help Resources / Secular Alternatives to AA or NA
The following resources offer secular — non-religious — alternatives to groups like AA (Alcoholics Anonymous), NA (Narcotics Anonymous), and other 12-step groups. Many of them also include a harm reduction approach (when appropriate for the individual) that does not demand total abstinence from use.
- Life Ring Secular Recovery — an abstinence-based, secular, and anonymous organization dedicated to providing a safe meeting space where you can experience a non-judgemental recovery conversation with your peers.
- Rational Recovery
- Secular Organizations for Sobriety — A nonprofit network of autonomous, non-professional local groups, dedicated solely to helping individuals achieve and maintain sobriety/abstinence from alcohol and drug addiction, food addiction and more.
- SMART Recovery — There’s Life Beyond Addiction, SMART Recovery can help you get there. Our mutual support meetings are free and open to anyone seeking science-based, self-empowered addiction recovery.
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline — 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
More info: SAMHSA’s National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357), (also known as the Treatment Referral Routing Service) or TTY: 1-800-487-4889 is a confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year, information service, in English and Spanish, for individuals and family members facing mental and/or substance use disorders. This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups, and community-based organizations. Callers can also order free publications and other information.
AA or Alcoholics Anonymous Critiques
Besides the fact that Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is cult-like in its dogmatic and “spiritual” approach to addressing alcohol use disorder (AUD; what used to be called alcoholism), there is a lot of evidence to suggest that AA is no more successful than other approaches to addressing AUD (Zemore et al., 2018). Contrary to AA’s dogma many individuals reduce their drinking without the help of AA or any formal interventions (Hester, Delaney & Campbell, 2011). Further there is a great deal of evidence which indicates that AA may be harmful to some individuals — especially those with religious trauma.
Hester, R. K., Delaney, H. D., & Campbell, W. (2011). ModerateDrinking.Com and moderation management: outcomes of a randomized clinical trial with non-dependent problem drinkers. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(2), 215–224. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022487
Zemore, S. E., Lui, C., Mericle, A., Hemberg, J., & Kaskutas, L. A. (2018). A longitudinal study of the comparative efficacy of Women for Sobriety, LifeRing, SMART Recovery, and 12-step groups for those with AUD. Journal of substance abuse treatment, 88, 18–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2018.02.004
More Articles:
The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous — https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/the-irrationality-of-alcoholics-anonymous/386255/
Critic Faults Alcoholics Anonymous for Lack of Evidence — https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/26/395310213/critic-faults-alcoholics-anonymous-for-lack-of-evidence
Some limitations of Alcoholics Anonymous — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2648498/
Scholarship and Educational Resources
Sexual Health and Family Planning Resources
LGBTQ Resources
- The Trevor Project — Saving LGBTQ lives / Crisis hotline: 1-866-488-7386
- Matthew Shepard Foundation
- Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
Prisoner Support Resources
- Human Rights Watch
- Amnesty International USA
- Prison Activist Resource Center
- Equal Justice Initiative
- Correctional Education Association
- Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
- National Center on Education, Disability, and Juvenile Justice
- National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC)
- National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA)
- ACLU Prisoners’ Rights: National Prison Project
- Vera Institute of Justice: Ending Mass Incarceration
Legal Aid Resources
Communities
- American Atheists — the largest atheist organization in the US.
- Ataraxism — a philosophy of life that emphasizes ethical living and reducing or eliminating the suffering of all sentient beings.
- American Humanist Association — Humanism is a general worldview that appeals to many atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, and the generally non-religious because of its focus on ethics, activism, and community.
- Sentientism — secular organization focusing on advocating for all sentient beings.
- Unitarian Universalism — non-dogmatic spirituality that might appeal to those who enjoy some of the rituals and ethics of liberalized religion, without the preaching of a particular point of view.
- Secular Buddhism — distilled / demystified Buddhism.
- Ethical Culture Movement — secular movement based on the view that “honoring and living in accordance with ethical principles is central to what it takes to live meaningful and fulfilling lives, and to creating a world that is good for all.”