Resources
If you need help now — and where to turn next.
Every number here is a public, verified crisis or addiction helpline — never a treatment-facility intake number. Call any of them just to talk; you never have to be sure it's "serious enough." And one safety rule repeats on purpose: after heavy daily drinking, don't stop abruptly without medical advice.
Crisis lines
Emergency
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911 now — including the emergency signs of alcohol withdrawal: a seizure, hallucinations, severe confusion, or fever with a racing heart after stopping.
988 Suicide Crisis Helpline
24/7
Call or text 988 — free, anywhere in Canada. If drinking has you thinking about harming yourself, start here. This is survivable, and people rebuild from exactly where you are.
ConnexOntario — addiction & mental-health helpline
24/7
Free, confidential information and referral for alcohol, substance use, and mental health in Ontario — including withdrawal-management (detox) services. No doctor's referral needed.
The rooms, the secular rooms, and the public routes
Meetings are free and everywhere — AA and its secular siblings — and every province runs publicly funded routes into counselling and medically supervised detox. All links go to the organizations' own official sites; we never republish schedules.
Alcoholics Anonymous — official meeting finder
Meetings in person and online, nationwide
Free peer fellowship. No dues, no forms, no attendance record — and the finder includes explicitly secular (“agnostic”) meetings. The official finder is the only current source for meeting times.
Al-Anon & Alateen — for family and friends
The parallel fellowship for the husbands, wives, parents, and friends of drinkers — same structure, separate rooms. Alateen is its wing for teenagers.
SMART Recovery — secular & science-based
Free, science-based meetings across Canada, in person and online — tools-first, run more like a workshop than a confession. Many people blend it with AA rather than choosing one.
LifeRing — secular & peer-run
Entirely secular peer support with no steps at all — conversation about your sober self versus the drinking one. Smaller than AA, warm, and online-friendly.
Health Canada — get help with substance use
The federal directory of provincial and territorial help routes for alcohol and substance use — including where to ask about medically supervised withdrawal (detox) in your province.
Want a person to walk it through with you?
Take the private self-check, or ask us to make one warm introduction to a matched, licensed provider — free, and only with your consent.