>Plenty of people have aproblem with drinking
> and they can stop.
Yeah. And I have a friend who joined AA several years ago who didn't particularly have a drinking problem. He got another friend to join too. I think my first friend would be a lot more tolerable if he would take a drink now and then. I see him as classically obsessive-compulsive. Go to a restaurant with him and you gotta sit at the same table, etc. And forget trying a new restaurant.
But like a lot of AA members, however shallow the insight AA gives them, the real feeling of clarity and control they get is enough. Staying tied to AA is attractive because they fear getting deep into their problems as they might with a more sophisticated approach. This is how one therapist I know puts it.
Mike Ferro Oakland