Originally Posted by
JdA23 
Thank you for responding, what Ive highlighted in your comment and what was said in the previous post above yours is what I'm trying to avoid, I believe. That's what scares me
it's been a decade since my last drink I am convinced that one drink will lead to the next, and ultimately (likely in a matter of days, not months) right back to the night I considered the relative merits of suicide versus sobriety.
^^And that right there is what AA has brought me - ways to live so that domino of events doesn't get set in motion. My AA program is the foundation, and as I stabilized from the sick, terrified, fragile person I was by the time, I learned how other people did stuff. On top of AA, everything from counseling to studying spiritiual advisors like RIchard Rohr to motivation and pyschological experts like Brene Brown, exercises, a strong support system of people in and beyond recovery....it took time but from the point where it was AA or nothing for me, and that tiny hope that I could find better than I had, I've found a journey I wouldn't trade for any of its perfectly imperfect parts.
I hope that you can find and create one for yourself. Of course it all starts with drinking, and continues with not drinking, but the program and the life you find is really about everything but alcohol.