I can relate to the fear around going to an AA meeting. If my sobriety depended on me getting to a meeting on my own I would be dead long ago. No way could I have done it. And you don't have to either.
What I did, having realised that perhaps AA was the only way out of the misery I was in, was to phone AA. I said "I think I have a drinking problem" (hahaha talk about minimise!) they asked if I would like to see someone. They may have suggested a meeting, I can't remember but if they had I would have said no. Instead they took my number and a man called a few minutes later and we arranged to meet one on one. He became my first friend in AA. If I was female of course a woman would have called back.
We spent an afternoon together sharing experiences, and I learned about alcoholism, and the AA solution. My new friend took me to a meeting that night and stuck with me for the next few weeks until I found my feet.
There were a lot of advantages to this introduction to AA which I won't go into now. Suffice it to say it saved my life.