I have only been to a few AA meetings. I found one I liked that I went to probably 3 or 4 times. There were a lot of ladies in there that had a lot of sobriety under their belt. I remember a couple of the old timers, the ones with 15/20 years, shared that they had gotten lazy about not going to meetings one week or one month and found themselves not craving but coming apart, getting aggravated. The one I really remember was like, "so here I am, even though I get really tired of still going to these meetings I've got to remember that I am not a good person when I don't go. I didn't want to come tonight but again I just don't find I like myself or anyone else does if I don't keep coming back."
That to me was somewhat shocking. I can understand how meetings could perhaps enhance your life but I don't really get how you need to go to keep at your baseline especially after twenty years. That being said I definitely think that 12 step meetings can be used in a positive way and not in a way to create dependence. And as long as it is early on and you are still moving forward and haven't stagnated I wouldn't worry about developing a dependence. I think dependence happens when you get lazy in recovery and if you stop using the 12 steps and AA meetings to challenge yourself in a forward motion. I also don't think that means you have to stop going to meetings after a certain point but if you find yourself going just to maintain a normal attitude towards life or sobriety in general past a certain point you may need to challenge yourself as to why the meeting itself is so important.