"Do you want what's going to keep you sober or do you want to do what will make people happy?"
The End, I don't much care about "people," but I do care for my mother. This is about one tool for getting sober (a sponsor) and one person who knows little about alcoholism and recovery pushing me to use that particular tool of the many out there.
And for what it's worth, I have tried different things -- AA, group therapy, journaling, a lot of reading. Particularly the latter -- I've done a ton of reading in an effort to get a handle on my problem, figure out what generally works and what doesn't, understand all the different approaches and their pros and cons. None of what I've done worked so well, which I believe is because the secret ingredient -- the genuine, 100% desire to quit -- was missing. I was still in that stage of knowing I needed to quit but still not 100% there when it came to WANTING to -- something I think we're all familiar with.
It has literally only been in the last few days--the day I sought out and joined this forum, in fact, that I think maybe the "want" to quit has FINALLY caught up to the "need" to quit. Prior to that moment, I think I could've probably tried every program and rehab treatment center on the planet and none of it would've worked, because when it comes to getting sober, "want" is everything. And that is a difficult place for an alcoholic to get to. If I am actually there, it's taken me a couple of decades and a LOT of heartache -- mine and others'.
I am more open to getting sponsor than I sounded last night, when I was pushing against the idea partly as a reaction to my mother pushing me into it. But AA is not for me. Which is what brought me here to post -- if you think a sponsor might help you but you're not in AA, where does that leave you? I wondered whether anyone here had a sponsor outside of Alcoholics Anonymous and how that worked.
But thanks for responding, The End, and I love your signature. That's where I am right now.