Anne M. Fletcher resolved her own drinking problem without Alcoholics Anonymous and was fascinated by other people who had found alternative methods to stop drinking. In the spirit of her first book, Thin for Life, for which she interviewed "masters" who had lost weight and kept it off, she decided to find people who formerly had drinking problems and learn how they got and stayed sober.

Although Alcoholics Anonymous, with its guiding twelve steps, is highly effective for many people, for too long the tendency in the United States has been to treat all people with drinking problems the same way.

If you did a nationwide search for people who have resolved drinking problems using different methods, what would you find as the common threads that led to a successful recovery?