AA is really the only thing that has ever made me feel like i am moving in the right direction. I go to nyc meetings. Some say this is the best city for them because if you dont like one you can go to another. I go to this one meeting where people are sharing about selling their bodies and drinking cisco in back alleys. And it is a delight. It is like they have shed something that allows them to tell the gospel of the human condition and it is cathartic to hear. Sharing at first was hard for me because it is hard to speak from a place of honesty, but if you can manage it, it creates a good feeling. The people are often cagey and anti social or with strange attention defecits, hyped up on manic certainties, but in this way it is like the school of human behavior. You find yourself in them in an unnerving and informative way. It is basically a linear buddhist practice with a more malleable higher power geared toward helping you with your ego problems.