PIC hours are much more valuable than Dual hours.
Most licences and ratings have minimum PIC hours requirements. So watch out for those.
If your problem is flying "alone" in the cockpit, you can still fly either with a friend or with an instructor whom you hire as a safety pilot, however you keep to claim PIC hours provided he's not giving you any "formal" training. Or try and find a friend with whom you can sit on the right-seat on his flights, that way you'll build experience and confidence and it won't cost you anything (other than maybe paying for lunch at the stop-over airfields...)