Hey shezbut,

Welcome to the Addictions > 12 Steps forum!

You are asking the classic questions for sure. Good job in self-honesty.

I was a staunch atheist for most of my life, but have been in and out of AA for 25 years. AA is a good thing for hundreds of thousands of people for decades. It might not be for you. But if you know about a free source of wisdom to help with a problem you are having, but would discount it and avoid it because you worry about it not jiving with your belief system - I would ask myself if this was simply sophisticated rationalization or even denial fuel by my addict brain itself.

The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking. Let's say you were rebuilding an automatic transmission for your car. Would you completely discount decades and hundreds of thousands of people who have successfully done it, and venture out on your own because you heard they use a set of tools that you are skeptical about.

There are secular alcohol recovery groups, but the catch is they are rare - so finding them and participating at the level that many in recovery need can be a challenge.

My question for you would be: What are you willing to change to address your challenges with alcohol?

One of the fundamental issues in my challenges was my belief system. I had to grow at least a little on some sort of spiritual dimension to recover from alcoholism. Does this mean full on conversion and acceptance of an organized doctrine? not even close.

I hope this illustrates for me that all of these principles are inter-woven and I don't know of a way to address alcohol problems an easier way for me. Think back to the transmission rebuild - sure it can be done without a manual and with a butter knife, but there's going to be a great deal more busted knuckles and months or years of struggle.

I like the message in your siggy. For me, "Yesterday's Junk" was my belief system.

For the second question. It's def a challenge. There's free effective wisdom in AA for that too.

Good luck! I'm proud of you!

moogs