I know these two guys who are good friends and mentors. One sober over 25 years through AA, one over 30 years through AA.
Both guys go to meetings daily. One works in recovery professionally. The other is in sales - but is a sponsor to many and is there in the program to give back.
I don't personally know any folks who have long-term sobriety that went to AA for a while and then just stopped and moved on with their lives.
In my own life - I have used AA as a core tool in my recovery. I'm over 2 years sober and don't attend meetings regularly at this point, have not formally worked all of the steps. I still go to meetings from time to time. I also still read the Big Book now and again. I intend to formally do all the steps along the way. I have done them all to some degree or extent in my recovery journey.
The takeaway? I don't know. I can say this; the perspective you're likely to get from people in the rooms who have been there a long time is the perspective of people who feel they truly owe their lives to AA. You're going to get the perspective of people who've seen a lot of people come into the rooms.... then fade from the rooms.... then turn up in the obituaries. The perspective you're going to get in the rooms is a humble, fact-based, perspective that is based on a sheer volume of numbers over time. A lot of people come in. A lot of people don't come back. A lot of those people wind up dead or despairing......
Meetings ARE a great tool. Will you perish and relapse and fail at sobriety if you don't go to meetings all the time? No. Not necessarily.
It's down to each of us to find our blend of 'what works' in recovery. But there are a LOT of people who have found meetings to be a pretty essential tool in the toolkit.
