Hi Indigo,
I'd say yes to your question. If you are not all tied up with self . . . that is, if you get most of your enjoyment in living from enjoying being of service to others . . . if you have no problems with boredom, envy, lust, laziness, depression, or anger and resentment, then I strongly suspect that you can stay sober without any program at all . . . so long as you feel calm, serene, and at home in the universe on a daily basis.
If you do not presently have the kind of life above, even then you might still be able to stay sober without a program. You could trade in booze for ice cream and pizza whenever you needed added enjoyment in being alive. You could take up gambling on a big time basis if life seems too boring. Perhaps experimenting with kinkier and kinkier sex would work. There are other escapes from growing along spiritual lines out there, and they all seem to work for a while at least in staving off the feelings which come from not wanting to become willing to be moved by truth from egoism towards humility. You don't
have to use mind altering chemicals which lower your social inhibitions and cause you the embarrassing and guilt ridden days which require more booze to forget.
The twelve step program of AA (now also used for gamblers, overeaters, sex addicts, etc.) are for those who got themselves into a similar position to that of the prodigal son of biblical fame. When, as a young jewish man, he had chased happiness down wrong roads to the point where he was slopping hogs for a living, he saw clearly that even his father's servants had lots better lives than he was now living, and decided to return home and ask his father for a job as a servant.
He had been driven by his ego-neediness to accept a humbling attitude towards his existence, Indigo. When that day comes in anyone's life, then they can finally see the wisdom in changing their attitudes concerning what is and what isn't important in being alive. That is when a willingness to let oneself be moved from the loneliness and inability to love others which is egoism towards the communal spirit and joy in loving others which is humility not only looks like a wise and prudent way to go, but also can be seen to offer, possibly, the
only way out of this frustrating business of daily life.
And certainly AA's twelve step program is not the only program which can point one in the direction of making use of daily life to grow along spiritual lines. For me, however, it was the exact fit exactly when I needed it, and from the day I walked through the doors of AA on 21 May 1975, when compared to my life for its first 41 years (minus 41 days), I can honestly say, "I've lived happily ever after."
Love and Blessings - Chuck