Yes, having a support group you trust and can depend upon is critical. I was court mandated into AA repeatedly so that was basically all I was aware of. I didn't have money so I never considered anything else. When I finally got serious about it, it was the only thing I knew I could resort to, and even then it wasn't immediate because I was basically an invalid. I could barely walk.
Then one night a woke up in the dark in a cold sweat and was certain I was going to die. I lay there for a few hours immobilized and immersed in terror. I eventually was able to move, and grabbed a small black and white 12 volt tv I had and began watching the only thing that was on in the middle of the night which was six back to back episodes of Shepherd's Chapel with pastor Arnold Murray. I watched that guy read the bible for six hours every night between midnight and 6 AM for two weeks, and then started going to AA meetings pretty much continuously for the next ten years.
I also began to see that AA had its problems. There were aspects of it that didn't work for me so I began going to Alanon meetings to deal with the alcoholics at AA meetings. I haven't been to an AA meeting in over three years now. It's a program for those who really want it, and I don't really want it enough to go to meetings right now. I was still going to Alanon meetings up until about a year ago, and almost went to one today, but got side tracked. Life happens.
They say something at AA meetings that I firmly believed up until about six years ago which is that you never graduate from AA. The fact is that I graduated from AA. I had moved on to eliminate all my addictions, and nobody in AA was ready to go there. It was impossible for me to share my experience, strength and hope without offending most of the group. They politely informed me that if I wanted to share, I had to confine my sharing to alcohol. They might just as well have handed me my diploma. There was no one else in that room that even wanted my help. They were all perfectly content to remain addicted to their caffeine, nicotine, sugar, fat, etc.
The supreme irony is that as meticulous as I've been in eliminating all addictive substances from my life, I've discovered much more subtle addictive substances. Carrots taste like Kandy Korn, Watermelon gives me a hangover, and I sometimes wake up feeling higher than a kite, and walk around all day practically floating three feet off the ground. Who knew that getting off dope and booze would lead me to become high on life?