Alcoholics Anonymous in Singapore: Meetings, What to Expect and Whether It’s for You

AA does not diagnose anyone, and it does not ask you to call yourself anything before you walk through the door. Its own view is simple: only you can decide whether you have a problem with alcohol, and the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

To help people decide, AA publishes a short self-check called Is A.A. for You?. It asks twelve yes-or-no questions, drawn from the experience of members, about patterns such as:

• Trying to stop or cut down for a week or more, without lasting success
• Wishing people would stop commenting on your drinking
• Switching drinks or setting rules in an attempt to control it
• Needing a drink in the morning to get going
• Drinking more at social occasions than you intended, or topping up before you arrive
• Problems at home, at work or with your health linked to drinking in the past year
• Gaps in your memory after drinking
• Feeling that life would be better without alcohol, yet still drinking

AA suggests that if you answer yes to four or more of its questions, you are probably in trouble with alcohol. It is a guide rather than a medical test, but it is a useful, private place to start. You can read the full pamphlet on AA Singapore’s website.

If you have been drinking heavily every day, please do not stop suddenly on your own. Alcohol withdrawal can cause seizures and a dangerous condition called delirium tremens. Speak to a doctor first: you may need a medically supervised detox before AA meetings become the right next step. Our page on alcohol dependence explains the signs and the options.

AA describes itself as a fellowship of men and women who share their experience with one another so that they can stay sober and help others to recover. In practice, that means regular meetings where people talk honestly about their drinking and how they have stopped, and a twelve-step programme that many members work through with the help of a more experienced member, known as a sponsor.

• It is free. There are no fees or dues. Groups pay their own way through voluntary contributions from members, usually a basket passed round near the end of a meeting. Newcomers are not expected to give anything.
• It is independent. AA is not attached to any religion, political group, organisation or treatment provider, including The Winslow. Some meetings are held in church halls simply because they rent out rooms.
• It is anonymous. Members use first names only, and what is said in a meeting stays there.
• It is not medical treatment. AA does not prescribe, diagnose or provide therapy. Many people use it alongside professional care, and many treatment programmes, ours included, encourage it.

AA Singapore keeps an up-to-date weekly calendar of meetings on its meetings page. There is no need to book or register: you can simply turn up. The list below reflects the calendar in October 2026. Times and venues do change, so please check the calendar before you go.

• Boat Quay Group · 1 Raffles Place
  Monday to Friday, 7.30am; Saturday, 8.30am. Formats rotate through the week, with a beginners’ meeting on Fridays.
• Eye-Openers · 60 Robertson Quay
  Monday to Friday, 6.30am; Saturday, 7.30am. A short, early meeting before the working day.
• Design for Living Big Book Study · Funan, 107 North Bridge Road (near City Hall MRT)
  Monday, 7.15pm.
• Church of St Bernadette · 12 Zion Road
  An eleventh-step meeting on Tuesdays at 7pm (also online), and the Serenity Sisters women’s meeting on Wednesdays at 7pm and Saturdays at 10am.
• Young People’s Group · Novena Medical Centre, 10 Sinaran Drive
  Thursday, 7.30pm, and Saturday, 7pm.
• Higher Power Happy Hour speaker meeting · Fairfield Methodist Church, 1 Tanjong Pagar Road
  Friday, 7pm.
• Sunday Morning Men’s Meeting · 313@somerset, Orchard Road
  Sunday, 8.15am.
• Rainbow Meeting, for LGBTQ+ members and friends · Oogachaga, 57 Pagoda Street
  Sunday, 10am (also online).

• Damien Hall, Church of the Blessed Sacrament · 1 Commonwealth Drive
  Singapore’s busiest venue, with meetings every day: weekday lunchtimes at 12.30pm and evenings at 7pm (including a beginners’ meeting on Mondays), Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 3pm, and a Tamil-language meeting on Sundays at 1.30pm.
• Living Sober outreach meeting · Family Service Centre @ Clementi, Block 346 Clementi Avenue 5
  Thursday, 7pm.

• Katong Family Group · 6 Chapel Road
  Tuesday to Friday, 12.30pm (Mondays online), plus a Chinese–English bilingual open meeting on Thursdays at 7pm.
• Big Book Beginners Meeting · WE CARE Community Services, 11 Jalan Ubi
  Wednesday, 7.30pm (also online).
• East Coast meetings · 920 East Coast Parkway
  Saturday and Sunday, 8am.

The online 4th Dimension group meets every morning, with beginners’ meetings on Monday and Friday evenings at 8pm and on Sunday mornings at 8am. Online meetings can be a gentle first step if you are not yet ready to walk into a room.

If you have a question about meetings, or would like someone to talk to first, AA Singapore can be reached by phone or WhatsApp on +65 8112 8089, or by email at help@singaporeaa.org.

Almost everyone feels nervous before their first meeting. Knowing what will happen usually helps.

Meetings are either open or closed. Closed meetings are for people who want to stop drinking, or who think they might have a problem. Open meetings also welcome anyone interested in AA, including family members and friends, who come to listen. If you are unsure, a beginners’ meeting is a good place to start, and AA Singapore can point you to one.

Try to arrive a few minutes early. Someone will usually welcome you, and nobody will ask for your full name, your job or why you are there. There is no sign-in and nothing to pay. If you would rather sit quietly at the back, that is fine.

Most meetings last about an hour and follow a familiar pattern: a short opening, one or two readings from AA literature, then either members taking turns to share their experience or a single speaker telling their story, followed by a close. Some meetings study a particular book or step; others are open discussions on a topic.

Newcomers are sometimes invited to introduce themselves by first name, but you can simply say you are new, or say “pass”. You do not have to describe yourself as an alcoholic. Many people listen for several meetings before they share anything.

• People speak one at a time and do not interrupt or comment on each other’s shares.
• Shares are about personal experience, not advice.
• Whoever you see and whatever you hear at a meeting stays there.
• Phones are silenced.

People often stay for a few minutes to talk. You may be offered literature or a list of phone numbers of members you can call. Meetings differ in size and feel, so if the first one does not suit you, try another. AA’s own advice to newcomers is simply to keep coming back.

You may also hear about “90 in 90”: the suggestion, common in AA, that newcomers go to 90 meetings in their first 90 days. It is not a rule, and nobody keeps count. The idea is that going daily in the early weeks builds a routine, a circle of familiar faces and support at the times you are most likely to need it. With meetings every day in Singapore, in person and online, it is possible here if you want to try it.

This is one of the most common concerns we hear. Anonymity is central to AA: everyone in the room is there for the same reason, and members do not discuss who they have seen. If you are especially concerned, online meetings, or meetings away from where you live and work, can make a first step easier.

AA talks about a “higher power”, but members are free to understand that in whatever way makes sense to them, and many members are not religious at all. Meeting in a church hall does not make a meeting religious.

You do not need to have lost your job, your health or your family to benefit from AA. Many members came when they first noticed their drinking was harder to control than they wanted it to be.

AA focuses on alcohol. Narcotics Anonymous runs similar meetings for people whose main concern is drugs, and many people attend both.

You are welcome at open meetings to learn more. Al-Anon, a separate fellowship, supports family members and friends of people who drink. Our guide Leading with Love also covers how to raise the subject of treatment with someone you care about.

AA and professional treatment are not alternatives. They work well together. A 2020 Cochrane review, which pooled 27 studies involving more than 10,000 people, found that structured programmes encouraging people to engage with AA helped more people stay continuously sober over the following year than other established treatments, and performed as well on other measures.

AA does have limits. It cannot manage withdrawal, prescribe medication or treat depression, anxiety, trauma or other conditions that often accompany heavy drinking. If your drinking is heavy, long-standing or tied up with your mental health, a professional assessment is a sensible first step, and AA can then become part of a wider plan.

A residential stay is a beginning, not an end. The 28 days at The Winslow give people the medical care, therapy and space they need to stabilise and to understand their drinking. The harder test often comes afterwards, back at home and at work, among the people, places and routines that were part of drinking.

That is why we incorporate AA attendance into our programme. During the residential stay, clients attend peer support meetings and are introduced to the twelve-step approach, so that a first community meeting feels familiar rather than daunting. As they move into the 12-week outpatient phase and return to family and community life, we encourage and support regular attendance at AA meetings near where they live and work, alongside their continuing therapy with us.

The aim is lasting change. By the end of the programme, each client should have a support network of their own: people who understand, available every day of the week, long after formal treatment ends.

AA is independent and is not affiliated with The Winslow. Our clients attend as any other member would, anonymously and on their own terms.

If you are worried about your drinking, or someone else’s, you can read more about our programme or speak confidentially with our clinical team. We are happy to talk through whether The Winslow is the right fit and, if it is not, to help you find the level of care that is.