Just a note about AA: Gregory Bateson wrote an interesting piece some years ago in his book on the "Ecology of Mind" where he pointed out that one of the reasons why AA works (and there is a mountain of evidence that it does) is that it faces the issue of control uniquely. The idea is that until you let go of focussing on personal egostrength, you cannot let the larger forces of balance work. It is trying to fight it alone with willpower that boxes in some people. The paradox is: "I am out of control; I need a drink to steady my nerves to get control of myself". He likens it to a highwire artist with one of those long horizontal balancing poles. If the highwire artist tries to keep the pole absolutely horizontal as he walks, then the momentum moves to the highwire itself, which swings in larger and larger arcs, eventually spilling the person over, because he was too tightly focussed on inappropriately narrowed control. It is only in the context of the larger system (sometimes referred to as "the higher power") that real balance can be achieved. Bateson notes that this sometimes has nothing to do with God: sometimes it is just reconnecting to other people in your life who can help you normalize, widen out the narrow unbalancing focus. He once said that he thought the AA phrase should have been "larger power" so as to get away from the idea of God, and accentuate the movement away from personal punishment and control.
yours, Peter T.