Chalmette… welcome.

As to your question, “Is the only way of doing that by going to AA?”

No I don’t think so. I think people get sober in all kinds of fashions. There are lots of other recovery paths you can try, do a goggle search on it and you will come up with many options.

But, few if any of these other paths utilize the sponsorship model. Like Ray said, a sponsor can truly save your life. There are so many ways we can screw up our sobriety early, and my sponsor has passed successfully through many of the things I struggled with, his insight was invaluable.

Do whatever your heart tells you to do as far as your recovery goes, just don’t walk away from AA recovery out of contempt prior to investigation.

Richard