FAQ & ethics

Eight straight answers.

If you have a ninth, email hello@theirdrinking.guide. I read every one. I will add it here if I get it more than twice.

1. Are rehabs paying you?

No. Not one. Not now. Not ever. No referral fee, no commission, no kickback, no “preferred partner” deal. The reason this site exists is that almost every other website on this subject is paid by a clinic to send you to that clinic. I will not be one of them. If a clinic ever offers, I will say no in writing and forward the offer to anyone who asks. That is the whole model.

2. Are you a clinician?

No. Not a doctor, therapist, counsellor, sponsor, interventionist, recovery coach, psychiatrist or nurse. I went to a four-week residential rehab in the UK in June 2020 and have been sober since. I am the patient, five years in, who paid the fee, did the work, walked out, and lived the years that followed. Plain English from one person who has been on the other side of this. Anything that should come from a clinician — medication, detox, diagnosis, prescriptions — the bot says so plainly and points you to your GP.

3. Is this AI?

The bot is built on top of a large language model. The voice, the bias, the rules, the lane, and the things it refuses to do are mine. I wrote the system that drives it. I update it. I read the conversations that get flagged. The model is the engine; the steering, the brakes, and the road are mine. When it does not know, it says so. It does not pretend to be human and it does not pretend to be a clinician.

4. Why charge?

Because anything truly free on the internet is paid for by someone you cannot see — usually advertisers, sometimes a clinic taking a cut on the other end. The forty-nine pounds is what keeps me independent. It pays the OpenAI bill, the hosting, the time. Paid once, by you, and that is the entire commercial relationship. No subscription, no upsell, no “premium tier”. If you genuinely cannot afford it and the bot is the difference, email me — I have never said no.

5. How private is this?

The conversation lives on your device, not on a server with your name on it. No account, no login, no email required. I do not know who you are. Messages briefly touch OpenAI’s servers to generate the reply (2026 API terms: not used for training, deleted after thirty days). Standard Cloudflare logs hold timestamps and IPs for thirty days, for security, not joined to anything else. Anonymous usage events — chat started, messages sent, paywall shown, anyone paid — so I can tell if the site is helping. No content. No identifiers. Full list on the privacy page. Honours Do Not Track.

6. This site is for people who cannot say the word. Do I have to be certain before I start?

No. This site is specifically for people who are not certain. The language on this site is “their drinking”, not the clinical word, because that is where most people start. You do not need a diagnosis, a formal language, or a clear category. You need to be watching something that is worrying you and not knowing quite where to take it. That is enough. Start there.

7. Refunds?

If you paid the forty-nine pounds and the bot was not what was on the tin, email hello@theirdrinking.guide within fourteen days. Refund, no argument. No form, no ticket queue, no “explain to us why”. One person, one inbox. I would rather your money back than your bad word.

8. What data do you actually keep?

The shortest possible list:

• An unlock cookie, set after you pay, to remember this browser is paid. No name on it. Five-year expiry.
• Stripe’s record of the transaction itself — their job, not mine. I see that a transaction succeeded and which device unlocked. I do not see your card.
• Cloudflare server logs for thirty days — timestamps, IPs, user agents. For security. Not joined to anything.
• Anonymous events: page view, chat started, message milestones (3, 5, 10), paywall shown, pay clicked, unlock succeeded, starter clicked. So I can see what works. No content. No IDs.
• Your conversation: only on your device. I cannot read it. You can clear it any time from the chat page.

That is everything. If you want me to confirm what I have on you under UK GDPR, ask — the answer will almost always be “nothing tied to a name.”

A ninth question? hello@theirdrinking.guide. Or just start chatting and ask the bot. First ten messages are free.