replying to your question about doing it alone.
I guess you won't know until you try. I never tried on my own, I just wanted to keep drinking and ended up with courts and psych services trying to get me to starighten out. I resisted all that and ended up in AA when I hit bottom.
But I know others who tried every imaginable remedy. Some managed quite long stretches without drinking, but were unable to find any happiness travelling the road alone, and usually ended up drinking again.
The trick is to be sober and be happy about it, and that seems to be what I got from AA.