Those who understand the common problem will latch onto the common solution. And the common problem is not the stories. In fact they are often the things that seperate us. Looking for the similarities in that sense can be difficult indeed. The similarities are not in what we did. They are in how alcohol affected us. We react differently to other folk. There are some similarities that we ought to be able to pick out of any alcoholic story.
The phenomenon of craving, the loss of control after the fatal first drink.
The obsession f the mind that dooms us to repeat the failed experiment of the fatal first drink. The inability to stay stopped.
The spiritual malady, our difficulty in living sober.
Or another view I heard. What happens to me when I drink, combined with what happens to me when I don't drink.