Personally, I find it more useful to not have a group or a "sponsor" to keep me on the straight and narrow, because I have to do it myself, and I can't put anything over on myself, the only person who is always with me...if ya followed that.

One little notion I've found useful is the concept of the addictive voice. Works like this: when you feel that craving for alcohol, even though it seems to be coming from inside of you, it IS NOT YOU. It's the Addictive Voice talking. You can just take that message, fold it up and put in in your pocket, because it isn't from you, its just directed _to_ you. (In fact it's spam!)

Also, the craving, physiologically, is a sugar craving. So eat a chocolate bar or a donut. Really works! It passes.

It only gets easier though if you quit stone cold. If you try to cut down gradually you are making your life very difficult because all the time you're going to have to decide "can I have a drink now?" I never had any luck with that approach.

There's an approach called Moderation Management which promotes controlled drinking rather than complete abstinence, but I'm happy enough with the results of the latter that I don't care to risk messing myself up for the sake of having a beer once a week or something. Might be helpful for people concerned about their alcohol habits but unwilling to stop.

W-O