My dad (a devout Catholic who has never questioned God's existence and trusts that God got him through WWII and Vietnam) has been sober for 25+ years-- no formal nor informal program. He was told in his early 60s that if he didn't quit smoking and drinking he'd be dead in a year; he quit both 'cold turkey' and has never faultered. I can guarantee w/o a shadow of a doubt that my now 88 yr old father has never smoked dope and never took any meds stonger than an aspirin (and he had to be in extreme pain to even take that) until just this past year; he now has to take tramadol twice a day because his hip that was replaced about 15 -20 yrs ago isn't good any more and he's too old to have it replaced.