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Just the the day after hyped-up New Year's Eve, as many as 5 million Americans woke up with headaches induced by Champagnes and made yet another resolve to abandon drinking. Earlier, such a resolve meant, clearing out your liquor cabinet and heading to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. However, this doesn't happen in a world where people talk more freely on Reddit than in person, admitting about their drinking problem. So far, as many as 30,000 people who are fighting their addiction said that there might just be another way. This is called, r/StopDrinking, an answer by internet to fight the drinking problem in an unconventional way. "The support I saw in (StopDrinking) on day one felt like nothing I had experienced in hundreds of AA or SMART meetings," said an active member of the forum who has been sober for over 560 days, reported The Province.

r/StopDrinking can be used an effective case study, not only for its flourishing community but also as a possible method of addiction treatment. This forum is a work of volunteers who have been alcoholics themselves. There are already as many as 31,339 members and counting, as reported by Houston Chronicle. Experts also believe in the effectiveness of this treatment. They say that even though StopDrinking may not be a step-by-step professional program or even a comprehensive philosophy on addiction and recovery, it is still has all the makings of a successful peer-support program.

"It's the fellowship factor that's effective," said John Kelly, an addiction researcher at Harvard Medical School. "There's accountability and monitoring over time. There's 24/7 support. There's cheerleading. It's incredibly valuable, especially early on." There are many ways in which StopDrinking operates on the traditional platform of peer support group. There are things like daily check-ins where the members confirm their day's sobriety, according to The Star.