Talk it through with the SI guide
Not a crisis service
If you are in danger, or thinking of ending your life, get help now.
Who James is
James drank every day from eighteen to forty-five. Four weeks in treatment in June 2020, and sober since. This guide speaks in his words. It is not James, and it is not a person. Read more about James
The basics
Nobody taught most of us what to do in the hours after a relapse. We were assumed to know.
Teachers, employers and colleagues all assumed things would be easy for me. Every one of those assumptions was wrong. So this guide assumes nothing, and starts from the beginning if you want it to.
What this guide is for
Help to work out where you actually are tonight, who to tell and when, and what needs to happen before morning. It does not grade what happened.
Why it is rarely one problem
A relapse is rarely only about the drink. It usually follows the work, the tiredness, or a week nobody saw. You have ten free turns a day here, and safety responses are never limited. Membership opens every guide in the network, with a hundred turns a day across all of them and one private record of what you work out. See what membership includes
Safety, for this guide
You are speaking with an SI guide, not James replying live. It can help you work out where you actually are tonight, who to tell and when, and what needs to happen before morning. It is not a doctor, addiction clinician, counsellor, therapist, sponsor or emergency service. It cannot diagnose you, grade what happened, arrange treatment, contact anybody on your behalf, or sit with you.
It does not diagnose and it does not treat. It will not tell you whether you are an alcoholic, whether last night was bad enough to count, how to come off alcohol, what to take, or whether to go back into treatment. Stopping suddenly after heavy drinking can be dangerous, and a dry stretch beforehand does not make it safer — that is a doctor today, not a chat window. If anything has become an emergency, stop and use your local emergency services; the safety page describes the routes. Do not name your clinic, your employer or anyone else here: nothing written in a chat window is confidential or privileged.
The safety page lists where to go.
When you are ready: Where are you tonight?