I don&#x27;t know how effective Alcoholics Anonymous really is (not saying one way or the other), but having the accountability placed on you by friends is a helpful thing in many other tough situations in life.  You can see it underlying many useful bits of advice (&quot;Have a cofounder&quot; always comes to mind -- someone to motivate you when you&#x27;re unable to do so yourself, perhaps?)<p>Addiction is no joke and anything that can provide relief or help to those who have found themselves caught up in it would be a huge thing.  I always think back to a former friend of mine who battled with opiates.  She lost her family and children -- well after she had completed a recovery program and been sober for a year.  When she started with pills there was a very good reason -- several surgeries and a lot of pain management.  When the pain was well and gone, she was left with a strong addiction.  The woman she was before she started popping pills regularly and the woman she is now (completely sober) are different people.  She told me that long term opiate addiction changes your brain chemistry in such a way that depression becomes a way of life -- I&#x27;m not sure if that&#x27;s true, but it looks like it is with her.  The worst part is that her marriage problems started well after she had cleaned up.  Her husband, still a friend, said he couldn&#x27;t stand the woman she&#x27;d become and confessed to me that he sometimes wished she&#x27;d never stopped.  Before the judgement starts, he&#x27;s a solid guy and I stand by his decision to fight for full custody of his children (you&#x27;d have to understand the whole story which I can&#x27;t do justice to here).<p>Her description of addiction still haunts me, though. She said &quot;you need it like you need food after having not eaten for a week&quot;.  She&#x27;s done a week long fast (as have I). She&#x27;d know.  That description is the only thing I&#x27;ve heard that adequately explains why addicts will put their children in harms way if it means getting their next fix (ever wonder why cigarette prices can go up 600% in two years and people still smoke?).  I watched her become completely broke buying pills from scary people in scary places.  I&#x27;ve heard from others some of the things she was willing to do to get enough pills to get her through a day; it&#x27;s way beyond what you already couldn&#x27;t imagine a suburban mother of 4 doing.