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Again, I only speak from my own experience.
My experience has been and continues to be that there is no such thing as my being alcoholic without my going to AA. They are two sides of the same coin. For a long time, I tried to do as you indirectly suggested -- I didn't go to AA because I believed it didn't work. But no matter how much I tried to stick to that, and to seek out these "alternative treatments" and "other recovery programs" that you and the Newsweek article and innumerable others talk about, I kept winding up right back in an AA meeting.
I've had three sponsors. Whether or not I've "worked the steps" depends entirely upon whom you ask, however I believe the same can be said for anyone at all in AA. I've read and studied the first 164 pages of the book (although I think the Doctor's Opinion and the testimonials in back are more useful and substantive), along with the book "The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions", and to a lesser extent the books "As Bill Sees It" and "Living Sober".
Yet in light of all of that, I still feel the way I feel about AA and alcoholism "treatment" in general, such as expressed in my original post. To coin a phrase, "I dunno."
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