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I see it as taking control of yourself, your actions. My husband quit on his own after 24 years of drinking, he was from a family of alcoholics. He said it took about two years for the fog to clear, his words, to change his way of thinking.

Good for him. I'm truely happy when the scourge of alcoholism is lifted from a family. For me AA was a way back to God. I was estranged from the Lord by my own actions but through AA I was able to come home. AA says that it is only the beginning and that many of its members seek spiritual growth in the church/temple whatever...the 12th step is not the end. It says that "Having had a spiritual awakening..." Its just a awakening...the begining of a new day...theres alot more to do....For people as hardheaded as me, AA worked but only after I had pretty much trashed my life.

You wrote, "My husband quit on his own after 24 years of drinking..."

Speaking only for myself, I couldn't do it alone. I tried and tried. Finally hit bottom--homeless, jobless, newly divorced, I came out of a blackout in jail, covered in someone else's blood from a bar fight, looking at seven years' hard time for felony assault, with no memory of any of it. It isn't necessary for one to give it all away to get sober: job, home, marriage, freedom, but it was necessary for me. At that point, I asked a God I didn't believe in to make me well or let me die.

Thankfully, the criminal charges were reduced to misdemeanors, so I only did a few months in county jail, not years in prison. I went from jail to a rehab center, from the rehab center to a halfway house, from a halfway house to the world.

AA saved my life, but I believe there's many paths leading to the same clearing. If your husband can stay sober on his own, then good for him. I mean it.