Self Help
These self-help tools are for you to use on your own time at your own pace. They are all free and you can try them below. They have been developed by the Public Health Agency, DACTs, Connections teams and local service delivery partners.
Self-help is empowering.
Developing your own self-help plan helps you to take control of your issue(s). The information, skills and methods you learn through self-help are likely to help in many different aspects of your life.
Self-help means a plan just for you.
Designing your own self-help plan lets you use your own particular strengths and weaknesses, and reflect your personal choices about how to best address your own issues.
Self-help can reassure other people about you.
Your decision to engage in self-help provides some assurance to other people that you are working on your issues and taking steps to overcome them. In many cases, your self-help efforts will be noticed and appreciated by those people around you who care about you or count on you.
Self-help is accessible and inexpensive.
Self-help is generally free or low cost. It can be a great first step to learning more about your issue(s) and how to put plans in place to better manage and address them.
Self-help makes you a better, wiser person.
Through self-help, you can learn to recognise potential problems and trigger points.
You may learn how to head them off before they occur or at least early on in their progression, and before they become substantial.
As your objectivity (your ability to see things as they really are) increases, you’ll be more able to be your own best adviser, steering yourself away from bad decisions and towards good ones with minimal fuss.
Self-help is private.
If you are uncomfortable with the thought of sharing with others, self-help can allow you to work in your own way and at your own pace.
To be of real benefit you need to make sure that you are honest with yourself and your answers when working through self-help materials.
Drinks MOT
Measure and assess your current alcohol intake by answering a few questions. Test drive your drinking now.
Alcohol and you Self Help
Make a change to your drinking
Cannabis and You Self Help
Make a change to your cannabis use at your own pace.
Drinks Diary
It can be helpful to keep track on what you drink and how many units you add up each week. Keeping this under control will result in a healthier lifestyle and give you better control over alcohol.
Helpful videos
Thinking about change?
Being unsure of what to do is normal with any change in your life, including decisions about your alcohol or drug use. In this 15-minute clip, Ed Sipler, addiction specialist, asks 8 questions you may find helpful when deciding what is best for you.
Coming back from a relapse: getting back on track
Relapse is normal in the recovery from alcohol or drugs. Ed Sipler, addiction specialist, and ASCERT have produced this short video for people who have experienced relapse and are trying to get back on track.
Dealing with worry
Many people are dealing with worry in these difficult times. This video is an overview of a self-help booklet developed to help you manage your worry.
Support for family members
When you live with someone else’s drinking, drug use or gambling problems your focus may be on ‘keeping things together’. In this video clip Ed Sipler, addictions specialist, introduces ways you can support yourself using a self-help pocket guide for family members.
Talk to someone, you are not alone.
Lifeline counsellors are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to listen and help, in confidence.
Those with hearing difficulties
Lifeline support is available for deaf people and those with hearing difficulties. Textphone users can contact Lifeline on 18001 0808 808 8000.
Textphone can be accessed using the Relay UK App, read the guidance on getting stated with Relay UK.
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