I got sober and I stayed sober with the support of 12 step AA meetings. It worked for me and it led me to a Faith in God . As the 24 hours turned into weeks, months, years, I still use the 12 steps in my life, in all areas of my life. I believe in those first few months, there was no one who could have helped me but other alcoholics who had achieved sobriety, happy men and women whose happiness can be compared to people who have been spared a death sentence. I went a few times a week for my first 10 years, it was haven, it was new friends on a spiritual journey. It's where no one will judge you, and it is where I learned what it means to be humble. I thought I was informed, yet I could not get sober. It is where a PHd does no one any good at all, because the 6th grade graduate can teach a lawyer or doctor something they could not learn, and it is how to stay away from that drink. The one drink takes another and another and another, which is why abstinence is so important. He will be told that in rehab, maybe even set up with his first meeting when he gets out. It works if you work it.