Mutual aid groups are free, accessible, and put you in a room (real or virtual) with people who get it. Most have online options, most run multiple times a week, and almost all of them welcome you whether you’re 100% abstinent, struggling, or just curious.
A few principles before the directory:
- Try more than one group. People often write off “recovery groups” after a single bad meeting at a single chapter. The culture varies dramatically between fellowships and even between meetings within the same fellowship.
- The 12-step vs. secular vs. mindfulness split matters. None is “the right one.” The right one is the one you’ll attend.
- Online meetings count. They are not a lesser version of in-person meetings. For many people, the privacy and accessibility are exactly what makes attending sustainable.
- You do not have to be abstinent to attend most of these. The traditional 12-step requirement is “a desire to stop using,” not proof you’ve stopped.
The kratom and 7-OH–specific options
These are the most directly applicable for our community. Lead with these.
Kratom Anonymous (KA)
Website: kratom-anonymous.org
A peer-led 12-step program specifically for kratom, kratom extracts, and 7-OH addiction. Daily virtual meetings throughout the week (10 AM ET morning meetings, 9 PM ET evening meetings, and weekend afternoons), with meeting format alternating between Discussion and Step focus depending on the day.
This is the single most directly applicable mutual aid for this site’s audience. The meetings know the substances by name; nobody has to explain what 7-OH is.
The full schedule with Zoom links is at Meeting Schedules.
Quitting Kratom Support (KQS / TIAWO, “There Is A Way Out”)
Website: kratomquitters.com
A peer-led, non-12-step virtual community focused on kratom and 7-OH recovery. Daily online meetings hosted by volunteers (8 AM, 12 PM, and 8 PM ET, plus a 9:15 PM ET late-evening slot on Tues/Thurs/Sun, plus Sunday men’s and women’s meetings), plus a 24/7 chat infrastructure. Welcomes both people in recovery and their loved ones, which is unusual.
If 12-step language is a bad fit but you still want a kratom-specific peer support community, this is the natural complement (or alternative) to KA.
The full schedule with Google Meet links is at Meeting Schedules.
Opioid-relevant fellowships
Dependence on 7-OH and the kratom synthetics is biochemically opioid dependence, so the opioid-specific fellowships are also a strong fit.
Narcotics Anonymous (NA)
Website: na.org
The largest mutual aid fellowship for any drug-use recovery. 12-step, all substances welcome, the only requirement is “the desire to stop using.” Enormous in-person and online network; in most US cities you can find an NA meeting almost any hour of any day.
The “all substances welcome” framing matters here: NA does not distinguish between “primary” substances. If you’re coming off 7-OH, you qualify, and your story belongs.
Heroin Anonymous (HA)
Website: heroinanonymous.org
12-step, specifically focused on people in recovery from opioid use including prescription opioids, heroin, fentanyl, and analogues. Smaller than NA but more focused. For people who want the opioid-specific cultural fit and don’t find it in the broader NA rooms.
Broader fellowships and alternatives
If 12-step isn’t your fit (and for many people it isn’t, and that’s fine), these are real options with their own evidence bases.
SMART Recovery
Website: smartrecovery.org
Secular, science-based. Uses cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT), and motivational interviewing. The “4-Point Program”: building motivation, coping with urges, managing thoughts/feelings/behaviors, and living a balanced life.
SMART meetings are facilitated discussions, not “shares” in the 12-step sense. The orientation is toward learning evidence-based skills you can apply between meetings, not surrender to a higher power. Free, in-person and online. Particularly good fit for people who want a structured skill-building approach.
Refuge Recovery
Website: refugerecovery.org
Buddhist-influenced, mindfulness-based. Uses the Four Noble Truths as a framework for understanding addiction and a path out of it. Peer-led meetings, both in-person and online. Free.
If meditation, mindfulness, or Buddhist philosophy resonates, Refuge offers a structured recovery framework around those practices.
Recovery Dharma
Website: recoverydharma.org
A more recent split from Refuge Recovery, with a similar mindfulness orientation but more decentralized, peer-led with no central paid leadership. Free, in-person and online. Some readers will find the lower hierarchy and more bottom-up structure appealing; others may prefer Refuge’s more established meeting network.
The recovery practices are similar across both; the difference is mostly organizational and cultural.
The Phoenix
Website: thephoenix.org
Sober active community. Not a meeting-based fellowship, instead, a network of free fitness, climbing, yoga, hiking, cycling, social, and creative-arts events for people in recovery. The only “membership” requirement is 48 hours sober to participate in any given event.
Particularly useful for the post-acute and longer-term recovery stretches when isolation and lack of a sober social circle become the bigger challenge. The community is real and the events are well-organized. Free.
In The Rooms
Website: intherooms.com
Online meeting network spanning many fellowships, NA, AA, SMART, Refuge, Dharma, women’s-only, LGBTQ+, and many others. Useful as a single place to browse and try different formats. Free.
LifeRing Secular Recovery
Website: lifering.org
Secular, abstinence-focused. Uses a “Sober Self vs. Addict Self” framing, strengthening the part of you that wants sobriety, weakening the part that wants to use. Less prescriptive than SMART; more emphasis on each person developing their own personal recovery plan. In-person and online. Free.
Women for Sobriety
Website: womenforsobriety.org
Women and non-binary people. Secular, positive-psychology-based. Built around 13 affirmations and a framework focused on self-worth, autonomy, and rebuilding self-image after dependence. Online and some in-person meetings. Free.
Celebrate Recovery
Website: celebraterecovery.com
Christian-based. The 12 steps reframed with explicit biblical foundations. Meetings typically held at churches; some non-Christians attend, but the framework is openly faith-based and the language is Christian. Free.
If a Christian framework is what works for you, this is the most established option.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
Website: aa.org
Named for alcoholism, but in many areas it’s the only fellowship that runs meetings every hour of every day. 12-step. Many people in opioid and kratom recovery attend AA because the meetings are everywhere and the format is familiar.
You don’t need to be alcoholic to attend an open AA meeting; many groups explicitly welcome anyone working a recovery program. If you’re new to mutual aid and want to attend a meeting tonight, the AA meeting near you is often the most accessible starting point even if you ultimately settle into NA, HA, KA, SMART, or another fellowship.
HAMS, Harm Reduction, Abstinence, and Moderation Support
Website: hams.cc
For people who want choice in their goal, abstinence, moderation, harm reduction, or some combination. Online network with chat rooms, forums, and resources. Less meeting-format-driven than the others on this page.
HAMS is included here for completeness and because some people aren’t ready for abstinence-only frameworks. Note: for opioid-class dependence specifically (which is what 7-OH is), moderation is much harder to sustain than abstinence, and the harm-reduction framing pairs more easily with MAT than with pure willpower-based moderation. Many in this community ultimately move toward abstinence even if they start in a harm-reduction frame.
How to choose
Practical heuristics for picking what to try first:
- Want kratom-specific: Kratom Anonymous (12-step) or Quitting Kratom Support / TIAWO (non-12-step).
- Want opioid-specific: Heroin Anonymous, or NA’s opioid-focused meetings.
- Want secular and skill-based: SMART Recovery or LifeRing.
- Want mindfulness or Buddhist framing: Refuge Recovery or Recovery Dharma.
- Want active and social rather than meeting-format: The Phoenix.
- Want what’s nearby and meeting tonight: AA’s massive meeting network is the most accessible starting point in many areas.
- Christian framework: Celebrate Recovery.
- Women / non-binary–specific space: Women for Sobriety.
- Online directory to browse formats: In The Rooms.
On this community
The quitting7oh Discord and subreddit complement (not replace) any of the above. The Discord is a 24/7 chat infrastructure, not scheduled meetings, it pairs well with attending live meetings somewhere. The pattern that tends to work for many people is one or two regular meetings somewhere + the Discord/subreddit for the in-between hours.
Where to read next
- Meeting Schedules: full schedules for both kratom-specific fellowships (Kratom Anonymous and Quitting Kratom Support / TIAWO) with day, time, format, and join links
- Sober Living Homes: when meetings need to be supplemented with a different living environment
- Community: about the Discord and subreddit