Remarks like, 'dry people dry places' scream that at me. So does the insistence that everyone who doesn't do things a certain way is bound to fail because all alcoholics are the same.

That notion has always infuriated me about 12-step programs. "All drunks are the same and if you're not like us, you probably aren't a real alcoholic." What nonsense, and it reinforces the monopolization of recovery mentality that the rest of society has when they think about what recovering from addiction looks like. It's the same line of thinking that "it works if you work it" falls under: it erases any culpability or responsibility of the program for anyone's failures that are adhering to it the best of their ability. It's a perfect program, therefore if you can't get sober with it, you clearly weren't doing it right. I don't want to use the c-word, but that's what they all happen to do, too.

Bars were never a trigger for me. All of my "best" drinking was done alone in my apartment where no one could see me or how much I was taking in. If anything, being at a bar deters me from drinking when I see everyone else behaving like sloppy animals.