Hi George ~
Good question. And I have a funny answer! My alcoholic drinking BEGAN in an Islamic country where alcohol was pretty much banned. I was so isolated. As a female, I was sexually harassed and assaulted almost every time I left the house and frankly, there wasn't much of anything great to see anyway, so I just started staying at home.
And drinking.
If you are an alcoholic, you will find any way to get it, and will pay almost anything for it. I imported it, I paid top dollar for it at hotels, I got British friends to let me into their club, I had friends import it. List was endless. In my country, the locals always said it was easier to get heroin than alcohol.
I excelled at making it work.
I think the key with AA is the support system and you would be removing yourself from that entirely as well because guess what? Just like you said, in "alcohol-free" societies, there are no AA chapters. AA is like a therapeutic outlet for me. The issue isn't the alcohol as much as it is my dysfunctional brain.
That was my experience with the alcohol-free society. Somehow it made me drink MORE!
