I'm starting to feel a lot more confident now. Three very important things I've learned for myself are:
- Don't count time. At first I thought this wouldn't make a difference but actually it does (for me anyway). When you start thinking, I'll be at a month, 90 days, a year or whatever, you're almost inviting the Beast to provide a counter attack. It might try to convince you you deserve a 'reward' for beating your last period of abstinence or that it can't have been a problem in the first place. AVRT's power is in its simplicity. And it's so much simpler to say, I will never drink again, and that includes today. When you start contextualising it with dates, targets, etc you lose the power of now.
- Don't enter into debates with the Beast. That's really where I've struggled. The thought of catching yourself taking on the Beast persona is a strange concept but one that you really need to get your head around. An immoral act you find utterly repellent may cross your mind for a split second but you would never entertain the thought of acting on it—or getting into a debate. For me, trying to make drinking one of those acts in the key to success.
- Make use of Shifting. In the early days even though you will never drink again because you don't want to, you will feel things that indicate otherwise. At first, even though I was using the Addiction Diction and recognised the voices as the Beast, I didn't so much with the feelings. The Shifting exercise, however, engrains in you that Beasts have feelings too. There's also that anxiety grid with the pluses and minuses on.
Just my thoughts…