When I read here that people who "prefer to rely more on themselves and their learning abilities ... tend towards sociopathy" and do not get as much "benefit from stronger relationships with people", I realize we must have gotten close to a raw nerve of the Institutional Addictive Voice (IAV)
When stripped down to their essence, the Recovery Group Movement and the Addiction Treatment Industry can be summed up in the two sentences brought into question by the OP - namely, "You will never get sober by simply deciding not to drink" and "defeating your addiction requires building a substantial support network". These ideas indicate blatant institutionalized disregard for addicted people. And disregard for other people is the definition of sociopathy.
Any decent regard for a person seeking information on how to overcome an addiction must clearly, first and foremost be responded to with teaching directly to the problem, unencumbered by extraneous personal belief systems of the professional*, and how to succeed at taking the pure stand alone Big Plan is the most direct unencumbered way. History proves this.
AVRT makes your ability to succeed at taking the Big Plan - "I will never drink/drug again." - scientifically and logically crystal clear. AVRT is not a belief system. I don't have to believe in AVRT any more than I have to believe in BJRT (Blue Jellybean Recognition Technique). One either separates them out or doesn't. The IAV for BJRT would be the Institutionalized Blue Jellybean (IBJ), when you would be forced to sort out BJ's with blue color filters slipped into your line of vision. That's how prevalent the IAV is in our society. The IAV is a whole thinking filter that has been imposed upon our general attitudes towards addiction. It can be unlearned, but that can take a little bit of time.
For an Addiction Treatment Industry professional to NOT inform a customer about the option of simply taking the pledge and learning how to make it stick is the height of institutionalized sociopathy. Basic disregard for people - addicted people - for the sake of personal gain. What other reasons could there be to start addicted people off at the lowest level of engagement of personal responsibility in a never ending struggle seeking outside help or disputing irrational beliefs**? Shouldn't people be allowed to live their lives, just minus the addiction? If future counseling is self-selected, great, but the very nature of addiction counseling means it is extremely difficult for many counselors to unlearn the IAV. I think it's better to avoid addiction counselors, unless one really wants to practice a lot of AVRT.
*This includes but is not limited to beliefs in the disease theory of powerlessness (can't name the group here), the disease theory of irrational self-talk (REBT)**, and/or the goal that everyone over 21 ought to enjoy two or three drinks every day (the liquor industry and its paid scientists/lobyists/authors***).
**Forty years ago Maxie Maulstby, Jr., M.D., Director of the Rational Behavior Therapy Center, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, wrote "A Million Dollars for Your Hangover", 1978, which still stands as the best example of using the disease theory of irrational self-talk (REBT) as a "New Self-Help Alcoholic Treatment Method". One of its goals is to consider drinking again six months later if you pass Dr. Maultsby's evaluation.
***I recently spoke with an addictions psychiatrist who admitted having an ideal that EVERYONE would happily be drinking 2 or 3 drinks a day. That way the 2/3 of all alcohol sold that is being drunk by people drinking more than ten drinks a day would be distributed into the 1/2 of the population that drinks only two or three drinks per year. See this VERY illustrative and shocking chart and try to come up with a definition of "normal" drinker.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.072eb01d1d22