The five
substances

All alcoholic beverages: beer, wine, spirits, fortified wines, hard seltzers, kombucha above trace ABV, alcoholic kefirs, alcohol used in cooking when the heat is too low to evaporate it. Some members are also cautious about communion wine and mouthwashes containing alcohol; many are not. Each member draws their own practical line. The principle is that we do not drink to alter the head.

Medical note: If you drink heavily and daily, do not stop alcohol abruptly. Alcohol withdrawal can be medically dangerous. Consult a doctor first; the fellowship will be here.

All mood-altering and intoxicating drugs not medically necessary. This includes recreational drugs (cannabis, cocaine, MDMA, psychedelics, ketamine, etc.), opioids used outside medical guidance, prescription stimulants taken non-medically, and similar substances. It does not include medications prescribed for legitimate medical conditions taken as directed, including psychiatric medication.

Members navigating prescribed controlled substances (e.g., post-surgical opioids, ADHD medication, anxiolytics) discuss the specifics with their sponsor and doctor. The fellowship does not arbitrate medical care.

Cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, dip, snus, nicotine pouches, vapes of all kinds, hookah, and nicotine replacement therapy (gum, patches, lozenges) used beyond a short medical taper. The principle treats nicotine as a substance that affects the mind because, in the lived experience of nicotine users, it does — the reach for the cigarette is the same reach.

For people quitting nicotine, the first few weeks include physical withdrawal (sleep disruption, irritability, intense cravings). It passes. The fellowship is particularly valuable here because nicotine cravings are short, intense waves where peer support in real time makes a measurable difference.

Coffee in any form (espresso, drip, cold brew, decaf with measurable caffeine content), black tea, green tea, energy drinks, caffeinated sodas, pre-workout supplements, caffeine pills, chocolate consumed in stimulant quantities. Herbal teas without caffeine, and roasted-grain coffee alternatives like chicory, are within most members' practice.

Caffeine is the substance newcomers most often resist abstaining from. The withdrawal — headaches, fatigue, low mood — typically lasts one to two weeks. The other side of it is a quality of natural energy and sleep that most members had forgotten was possible. Members frequently describe caffeine cessation as the most surprising of the five.

Sugar in all its forms: white sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, beet sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, agave, honey when used as a sweetener, maple syrup, coconut sugar, date sugar, and the artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols that occupy the same psychological place. We do not mean the sugar naturally present in whole fruit; an apple is not a substance.

This category also includes the white-flour and processed-starch products that behave in the body like sugar: white bread, pasta, white rice, crackers, pizza crust, breakfast cereals, baked goods. Some members include all flour-based products, even whole-grain; some draw a narrower line. The fellowship is consistent about the principle and flexible about each member's working definition.

This is the substance category most members reach for last and find hardest to put down. The fellowship does not claim carbohydrates are pharmacologically equivalent to alcohol. It claims that, for people who recognise themselves in the room, sugar and carbohydrates operate as one substance category — and that the same Twelve-Step program recovers us from it.