Originally Posted by
tomsteve 
An alcoholic is an extreme example of self will run riot.
It wasn't my HP letting me " dabble in the insanity." it was me and my HP was giving me signs the whole time that what I was doing wasn't what He wanted me to do ( and self will kept me doing what i wanted to the point i had no choice)and there were many times He pulled my ass out of certain death.
Yes, this ^^^ is the truth, or certainly was for me.
The posts on this question have been spot-on for me thus far. I also asked similar questions and had similar doubts. All I know is that I came to AA and the 12 Steps after I had exhausted just about every other option known to mankind to either control or stop my drinking. I had faith in NOTHING at that point, least of all me. I had no hope and no faith. But I was also out of self-will and very clear on the fact I was going to die if I kept going the way I'd been going. So I was willing to try anything, even what I considered to be "hocus-pocus" as far as the Steps.
I surrendered and I worked the Steps. By the end, something had most definitely shifted in me in a way that I could never have brought about myself. EVER. I am 22 months sober today, exactly. I am going through the Steps again and, this time as well, things are moving that I could have never gotten to move on my own without some Divine Intervention. So AA and the Steps may not be everyone's path, but they sure have been mine.