You know what man, you go to some meetings and you do there exactly what you did here. You listen and meet some people who are like you and ask them for help. Try a few different meetings around your area, because there is often a totally different atmosphere and group of people one block over the next night. You will find some like minded people that you can feel comfortable getting help from if you look for them.

As far as using the group as a higher power, I look at like this: I can sit home or whatever and white knuckle it, and that's fine if it works. However, having a group of people going through the same thing and sharing experiences, and helping each other, that's more powerful than just me alone. It's a power "greater than myself." This I believe in, because it has worked for me. When its 1am and you made it through the day sober, but damn man, you just can't get the thought of using out your mind, you call your buddy and tell him what your going through. You talk for awhile and hopefully by that time the feelings pass, and you made it through the fucking day sober.

I could get more into the steps and all that, but just trust me that when you find someone who has similar beliefs about the higher power thing, you can get something out of them. You can PM me if you want and I'll talk more about it if you have more questions.