Putting aside debate on the finer points of various programs, AA meetings for me are immensely beneficial because I get out and interact with humanity. This is an incredible, basic form of therapy. My college buddies are scattered across the States, my grad school peers have moved on, I only make idle chit-chat with neighbors while mowing the lawn or moving the sprinkler. Since I work at home or in the library, my world while drinking was a bubble of grotesque isolation. I blew off tons of social invitations, saying I needed to stay home and work. Most of the time I stayed home and drank. Or I sat in the library with the jitters, beset by fear that I would turn the corner of a book stack and run smack into a professor, who would immediately know how broken I was.
Getting the nerve to go to meetings consistently was a huge advance for me. I walk into the rooms and find strangers who at once cease to be strangers since we share a common human affliction. We are social creatures, and at least for this alcoholic, being profoundly antisocial was a key part of my sickness. Meetings are a powerful cure for this. I take comfort in shared humanity, I can see it for the beautiful thing it is, and I learn not to fear it.