Originally Posted by
Peta 
I'm feeling very emotinal is that the beast (dying) or is it me??
I havent drunk but i'm struggling - it's struggling I should say
I keep recognizing it but it's relentless and then I feel like crying and I just feel so sad but perhaps it's the thing feeling sad
The Beast is a creature of depression, not only because alcohol is a depressant, but also because the Beast has a "life sucks" attitude. For the Beast, everything sucks without a drink, and right now it is feeling the deprivation. Since it is essentially part of the limbic system, you will feel its moods for a while, and you need to get into the habit of separating from IT's feelings. IT may not be happy right now, and can even make you cry, but through your eyes, you know that a securely abstinent state brings hope for the future instead of despair.
You can use the AVRT® Matrix to practice shifting back and forth between these two points of view. The Upper Right cell (
) represents the certainty principle of the Big Plan, which lets you know that you won't be creating any more problems for yourself from drinking. The Lower Right cell (
) is the infamous dry drunk, but through the lens of AVRT, we can see that the dry drunk is just the Beast feeling deprived. While the death of the Beast can be a noisy affair, like a newly caged animal, it will eventually get used to captivity and settle down.
NOTE: The AVRT® Matrix is copyrighted material, which may not be reproduced without explicit permission of Rational Recovery Systems, Inc.