Why does sober living homes encourage and mandate 12 step programs? Simply because it works! However, for as many different people sober in and out of the program, there is that many different experiences for each person in how they sustain their sobriety. Not everyone that stays sober for a long time is involved in a 12-step program, however, statistics show that people that come into a 12-step program and work the steps, get a sponsor and a commitment stay sober longer. The saying goes "do what we do and it will work for you" I remember hearing that and I did not believe it would work for me. although it interested me enough, as well as the pain and trouble I was in to motivate me in taking the chance of doing everything that was suggested. Even without my own confidence about it working for me, before I knew it I took a year, then another and now over two and half decades later, I still choose the easier softer way of AA and being a part of the group to help me in my long-term sobriety. I don’t want to end up a statistic of how many don’t go to meeting and drink. I want to be a face in the crowd at my many meetings I go to a week. I drank every day for many hours and more, I can certainly make a one hour meeting 5 days a week! It insures that I have an amazing life, happy and content. When things don’t go right and I don’t know what to do, I know the most important decision I make daily is not to pick up a drink. Simple and clear. I never want to live out the last year of my drinking and drugging and the hopelessness of not being able to do anything about it. I never want to get sober again and deal with the depression, weight gain and obsession. I want to use my experience of everything that I did when using that was embarrassing and shameful to me to help others to recover from those same feelings and we can all gain prospective, those thing don’t define me today. My love and passion for other recovering alcoholics define me today!