...self-improvement philosophies and religions.

There is one undeniable indicator that shows that AA has been useful to me anyway: I am still alive. I know for sure that without AA I would be dead already, in fact would have been dead for a long time.

But when I speak about AA here, I speak only about the meetings, where I meet other people who want to be sober, I do not speak about any program (what a disgusting word). I have often said in those meetings that I never think of "the program" outside the meetings.