A common refrain in AA:
"I've really enjoyed this meeting. I heard exactly what I needed to hear. But that's not good enough: I'll have to keep coming back!"
There's nothing essentially wrong with this, as being helped is all well and good, and, yes, it's quite right, one does have to keep coming back.
However, this refrain belies a deeper problem:
It supposes that it is other people who get to recover and channel spiritual sustenance, whilst the individual remains a passive consumer, unable to feed himself, and having to gather up the crumbs dropping from the table of those who have taken the Steps, had a spiritual awakening, and have a channel to the Higher Power.
Whilst a spot of relief or a spot of insight does no harm in itself, it's not a substitute for recovery.
One of the downsides of the universal availability of meetings, workshops, conventions, AA literature, spiritual literature, recordings, podcasts, and many other resources is that, collectively, they enable unrecovered alcoholics to remain in a perpetual holding pattern of barely contained dysfunction, on the brink of relapse or breakdown, restrained from complete internal collapse or full-blown relapse by the constant mopping of brows and warm pats of encouragement forthcoming from others who are only to happy to hold out the hand of AA.
The only thing which really needs to be heard is this:
Take the Steps promptly, complete every last amend, and devote your life to serving God through usefulness to others.
Having heard this, the only legitimate response, if one has not done this, is to clear the schedule and get the job done.