I never was an AA'er until I absolutely knew I had to stay sober. I was clean for a few months before I entered the rooms. It wasn't the cravings that drove me there, it was the desire to find a way to live without drinking.
When I say live, I don't mean the quality of life thing, but the breathing thing.
I'm past seven months of clean time, and I don't count the days, but count months. I have been to, I don't know, more than a hundred meetings? I have yet to be to one that didn't help my sobriety.
And by sobriety, I don't mean not drinking, but gaining insight into how to chalk up another day of growing.
I did count days in the beginning. I went, gee, 60 days clean, so I must be OK now. The danger in that for me isn't growing complacent and thinking, OK, I can have a few beers, but rather, damn, 60 days and I still don't feel normal.
AA has helped me realize that I'm not normal, I'm an alcoholic and an addict, and that defines a lot more than someone who just drinks and relies on drugs to get through life.
For me, getting to day VI wouldn't have happened without finding a good AA group and going to meetings every day.