AA was the last place I wanted to go. There must be an easier, softer way. The answer is that " AA alone" offers a solution. 100 men and women recovered in the 1930's from a hopeless state. This was unheard of before that. The alcoholic was relegatted to sanitariums, jails, or the morgue prior to the founding of AA. Now what that tells me is that when someone asks doesn't someone need something besides "AA alone", the answer is simple....No. That doesn't mean that other tools can't be useful, but I have found that substituting those tools for AA will get me drunk.