Originally Posted by
2012Starlight 
So if religious and spiritual are not two sides of the same coin, then what is it? The brief encounters I've had with AA, or programs based on AA 'philosophy', it mentions 'God'... that you should find 'God'. I was never really religious, so it just put me off.
I mentioned that I have indeed tried AA/similar (just not specifically attended AA meetings), so it's not as if I didn't leave it as an option, ever in my life. As I said, I was put off by it, as it seemed cult like.
I'm all ears when it comes to whatever 'message' people here try to get across - but do allow me to be cautious in terms of buying some product or Big Book suggesting how I should live my life or what I should do with myself.
Not looking for anybody to throw a pity party. I mentioned in my opening post that I have (psychological) cravings and asked for advise/feedback on this specifically, from people in a similar situation or from somebody with a comparable length of sobriety and ongoing. At least one poster could totally identify with that.
There are lots of alternatives to AA - if it's not a good fit, and you already know that, for whatever reasons, there are plenty of options. What you might not find so easily, depending on where you live, are non-AA face to face meetings (other than medical treatment groups, and some of those are 12-step-based too), and of the secular groups SMART probably has the most local face to face meetings.