Asa and Redfalcon,
I gave up drinking altogether on my own about ten years ago. I lasted about two months--then wound up drinking more heavily for years.
Then I found the support of SR and I found not only useful sobriety strategies ("tools"), but different points of view that offered different (and better) motivation.
I relapsed once--but I was soon disgusted and stopped after 10 days. SR was my regular diet.
Six months later I dealt poorly with stress and anger and drank again--but this time I thought better of it after one day and I haven't bothered to drink since (three years).
The point is that support makes a real difference to getting and maintaining sobriety. Listening carefully to my support system and learning from their experience was critical to my success.