For me, AVRT is an extremely pure and ironclad polarization technique.
It is about an extremely self-conscious series of physical actions that took place 2 1/2 inches from my eyes, and 1 1/2 inches from my nose, and required full muscle coordination of at least one arm down to my thumb and a finger. That's just the half of it. Then I had to decide to open my mouth and either swallow or inhale.
And, it is about very specific substances that I can identify with utter simplicity.
I haven't been able to come up with an analogy in major life experiences that has the precision that is possible when using AVRT.
With all that said, regarding the evolution of my emotional response to using AVRT, the analogy I feel that fit best for my quitting alcohol and pot is when someone very old and dear to me who has become severely mentally incapacitated by their age finally dies. Righteous, good, yet sad, and full of grief.
My Big Plan forced the absolute death of a strongly habituated physical experience, I know I can't rescind it, I know I had never "quit" this way before, and I know I cannot lie to myself.
My Beast was persistent. It took the harmless experience of drinking dreams and was able to impose that dream anxiety of having failed at abstinence, and brought it into the background of my conscious emotional structure. For a period of time, when the thought of drinking would pop into my mind, for 2 to 5 seconds I felt an initial anxiety of having a real, recent history of struggle and failure; and I actually had to jar my consciousness back to the truth - that, of course, I had not failed at my Big Plan.
My Beast was taking the memories of the real struggle and ambivalence I felt before I finally quit and was trying to superimpose them into my life after my Big Plan - Hah! - not a chance. It was truly one of those "What on earth is it going to come up with next!" moments, and thereafter "Wow, there it is again. What a crock!" It had tried to sneak up on me, but every time I felt very competent very quickly.