Babs, the early months were a real challenge for me. I felt the need to put a good face on it but I struggled. Coming here to both Marchers and Undies was enormously helpful. Although I swore I'd never go to AA again, when I was nearly a month sober I did start going. I certainly don't agree with everything and some things irritated me. However, for me the f2f was more important than I had realized. And I discovered that the things that irritated me turned out to be very helful in my recovery. I've made some friends that way, too! Isolating just wasn't healthy for me. Added to that, my intensive outpatient program gave me a number of tools. Perhaps one of the most important things I gained from all three was a strong feeling of accountability. That helped me through a number of rough spots. If I feel at all tempted, I now automatically run through in my mind what a slip would mean and that's enough now to stop me. I don't expect smooth sailing all of the time but do feel much more solid :-)