I've read that you need to hit a bottom before you'll be ready to quit. Is that true? I don't want to hit a bottom.
My experience has been one needs to hit "A" bottom before they quit.
The neat thing is we pick our own bottoms! Mine was pretty low as far as my drinking got, but when I hit my bottom it was more of a mental/spiritual bottom.... I was empty inside, I could not drink enough anymore to fill the hole in me. I was in the process of losing my wife and kids, my job would have come soon after that along with my house and truck if I had kept on drinking.
A bottom is the point where one wants to not drink more then they want to drink.
So, could private therapy help? I've never done anything like that, so have no idea what to expect.
Of course it could, I would reccommend that if you find that therapy alone does not do the job that you be willing to open your mind to all methods of recovery from alcoholism.
I will tell you this, I was like you, I had a preconcieved idea of what AA was like, I had always felt that AA was for losers, those that were weak and of a far lower type of people.
I will just say this, once I threw away all of my preconcieved ideas of what AA was like & actually went to AA meetings I discovered that I was so wrong it was not funny.
Here is a sample of folks I know personally in AA.
Lawyers
Doctors
At least one federal judge I know
At least one minister.
Teachers
College professors
Nurses
Business owners & business people.
House wifes.
Retirees
Constrution workers
Etc.
POLITICIANS!!!
Yes sir, right on Capitol Hill there are elected officials as well as their aides that attend AA.
Names? Sorry, AA is anonymous.
I thought AA was a bunch of sad old broken down men, sitting in church basements drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes & crying because they could not hold thier liquor any longer. Did I mention I thought most of them wore nasty clothes and lived on the street or in homeless shelters?
What I found and continue to find in AA are people from every walk of life, every profession, every religion, aethiest & agnostics, men & women, young & old. Basically the same people you would see in a mall. I found the most honest & friendly group of people I have ever met in my life.
Stay honest, open minded and willing to do what ever it takes to stay sober.
Do not get me wrong, AA is not the only way to get or stay sober, but to my knowledge it is the only place one can go to for help with a drinking problem and meet & learn how to get & stay sober from people with any where from 1 year to 40+ years of sobriety.
BTW there are some real jerks that attend AA, but they are by far in the minority.
Also there are people with Top Secret clearances in AA, SCI, EBI, etc.
Can not hurt to check it out and see for your self then accepting rumors & propoganda about AA.