Addict named Gooch here... jail was the wakeup for me to.
I had a few DWI's spread out over nearly a decade and a half. Never had an accident or even spent a night in jail previous to 1991'. The 2nd DWI was in 88' and I started to recognize that maybe I had a problem with alcohol, so I checked out treatment and councleing before I went to court to try and "beat the rap". I skated out of that 2nd DWI with a fine and temp surrender of my license.
Went to AA ( thought my problem was primarily alcohol) and then I met some NA members and went there for the next 2 and a half years, while I tried to sort things out. I stopped going to meetings primarily over the religious stuff and the (what I interpreted as ) holier than thou attitudes. I've always been along the borderline of agnostic/aetheist.
It wasn't 3 months before I got a predicate felony DWI and was looking at 15 months to 4 years state time. I wound up somehow getting a 6 months jail sentence and ent back to NA.
I went to my first NA meeting the day I got out of jail in the summer of 91' and have consisered myself an addict ever since. I went to many meetings, got involved with servive work and came to my own understanding of the Higher Power thing.
I'm not a slave to the substances any more and stay in the process of trying to learn what it takes to stay one step ahead of this crazy condition they call addiction.
If I can do this anyone who wants to can. The desire to stay clean is all we need.
Keep comng back. you'll find something that works for you.