Missy - I will be 1 yr. sober next week. My first couple of months I went to AA and found it very helpful mostly to help break my routine - what to do at 5:00 or 6:00. It was also great to be able to share with others who understood and had been where I was. I walked to meetings and took my dog and soon found just getting out and back into a routine of walking the dog was very helpful and therapeutic. Although AA was important - even critical to those first few months, I gradually stopped going as I began to find other healthy activities to build my routine around.
What I found most daunting at AA wasn't people who had 5, 10, 25 yrs. sober (althouth that was pretty amazing) but that many had been attending AA all those years!! That scared me and I asked many why they kept going - were they afraid they would drink again. Most said not due to fear of drinking but some said it was a good reminder and also they wanted to help others. But what I came to understand is that for these people it is about affiliation - similiar to why people go to church but AA doesn't hang with a specific religion. They find continued support and become close as a group who share things in common - esp. one important thing.
But for me I couldn't see myself forming a longterm affiliation with AA (some parts I had trouble getting on board with) so my thought was that I needed to build or re-build my own outside affiliations with others and groups around my common interests etc. - leaving drinking behind. It actually seemed easier to just keep going to AA - everyone was so welcoming and understood where I was at and said not to worry about anything but coming back to meetings. I found it much harder to rejoin life and other activities sooner rather than later - activities not centered around drinking or recovery (AA). But this is for each person to decide what fits and what works. If it is working - stay with it!! Ofcourse people who remain in AA also have other activities (I am not suggesting they don't because they choose to have AA in their lives) - I just wanted to put my energies outside of work to other activities (as long as I didn't need AA to remain sober).
Looking back I wish people in the AA groups I attended had articulated a program using AA the way I did without so much focus on coming back indefinately because AA was very helpful to me but I had to figure it out myself because I wasn't taking the suggested route - but no one had other suggested paths for me. I realize people say to work your own program but the only one discussed was to keep coming back.
Again, AA was a critical component in my first months and I'm so glad I went and glad I found my own path that for me does not involve long-term affiliation with AA. But each person will find their own way with this and everyone should at least give it a fair try.