Counselling for alcohol dependence

[JammyRedRoo2]

From what I’ve heard, you have to be off the booze to do any counselling for dependence.

Does anyone know what sort of counselling is available, and how sober do you need to be to access it?

If you’re in the UK, type in the name of your local authority and ‘alcohol service’. Most of them have a walk in service to access help at least four days a week. Info should be on the website or phone them up. Counselling is available - mostly in groups with some 1:1. Don’t have to be sober to get going and will receive support to come off alcohol safely. The framework is either 12 step based (AA) or CBT based. Have a look at the SMART recovery workbook to see the sort of thing involved.

Can also access smart recovery groups online and there is also AA both of which separate from LA services.

Then there is psychological therapy to address whatever mental health problem occurred alongside the alcohol problem. For that - can sometimes access within the service depending on how well resourced it is, if not can access via usual pathway (talking therapies etc) but they usually want you to have been abstinent for a while.

make sure your GP is prescribing you thiamine 100mg three times a day to protect your memory.

Good luck.

You don’t have to be sober to access individual therapy (though you have to pay for it). I had therapy certainly before I got sober. I paid privately for it. Realistically though, if you are still drinking, you will not be able fully engage as well as you would if you weren’t. If you want to get sober though, don’t use lack of access to talking therapy as a reason not to. You may have to leap before you know what you’re leaping into.