Originally Posted by
Terminally Unique 
<snip simple program of don't ever drink>It works if you work it. Guaranteed.
I absolutely agree. Not drinking, if you can pull it off, will be 100% successful for not drinking. There is no need to look any further or even pick up a Big Book if 'not drinking' works for you. AA is not applicable to those who can successfully not drink.
It's a pretty big 'IF', though.
So what do we offer to those people that fail and continue to fail at the 'not drinking, ever' program? For me, AA was a solution that worked, after continually failing at not drinking by other means. I've been around long enough to see it work for many others. In fact, I've never seen anyone fail to get sober and stay sober who participates in the AA program the way that I participate in it; namely, take the 12 Steps and continuing applying them to my daily life. 100%, never seen it fail.