If AA was working and you were felling good about the way things were going, why are ya lookin for something else?
No matter which method ya use, you will still have the choice to Go back to old habits.
With this statement:
. It was like a huge weight was lifted since I didn't have to devote so much time and energy to simply not drinking.
I devoted every second of every day to getting drunk for quite a while. Then when the pain of getting drunk exceeded the pain of reality I decided to devote just as much time into recovery as I devoted to drinking.
It seems yer lookin for an easy way. Welp, I don't think any way is easy. For a while.
Getting sober wasnt easy for most of us no matter what method.
But it got easier with the footwork.