Originally Posted by
Dalek 
Thank you for posting this, Meredith. I think quite a few people from the "Friends and Family" side would benefit from reading the Rational Recovery book, even if their family members have no interest in quitting. It provides an inside view of what actually goes on in addicted people's minds, well beyond what they would have others believe, and vindicates people from the guilt of being an enabler. Since AVRT is all about exposing the addictive voice which perpetuates addiction, and which addicted people almost always project onto others, AVRT is also the ultimate addict lie detector, bar none.
I want to expand a bit on the what I think are false implications in two related phrases in recent posts.
1) Dalek's phrase that I highlighted in bold type above; and
2) one I made to Meredith that included "
he simply doesn't think it's wrong for him to drink some more"
Can dependent people be influenced to change their minds about their dependent drinking/using from being OK to being wrong? I think so.
And, is it really that black and white, or, are there gray areas where it can go back and forth between being sometimes right and sometimes wrong? I think it's pretty black and white (animal and human).
This is where a dependent user's personal morality plays a giant role and I believe it can be influenced by other people that have "leverage" in their lives.
I knew as far back as college that my binge drinking was absolutely the wrong thing to do because I knew that wasn't what I was there for, but I didn't care enough to consider ending forever my newer drinking/toking lifestyle that I had spent a lot of time and effort to establish alongside the rest of my being-in-my-right-mind life. As time passed and my dependency became more deeply entrenched, being in an altered state of mind came to feel more and more like a mandatory part of who I was. The real fully-human me, though, knew if this was true, I was royally screwed.
The real me, with values instilled from my first twenty years, did maintain an existence all throughout my drinking/toking career, and that is what eventually took over and dominated my plans for the future use of alcohol/drugs with NEVER again.
I think every adult who is dependent on getting mind altered with alcohol/drugs knows there is something wrong about being in that condition. But they are still relieved when good people around them tolerate it, get confused, detach, and/or do nothing.
I also think it is not just acceptable, but it should be expected of family/friends/fellow-workers/community-authorities to help drive that knowing wrongness out into the open and reinforce it in the right minds of not only addicted, but also of dependent users. This is where AVRT becomes so useful and lays it all out by exposing the lies, myths, excuses, and Beastly self-righteousness that drag red herrings across the path towards the simple truths behind chemical dependency.
To sum up, I think dependent drinkers/users know what they're doing has a very significant "wrong factor", and AVRT identifies the problem and plows the road clear of all the misinformation obscuring the simple truths. So, my answer to the subject question is "Yes, and AVRT gives the framework for doing just that."
People who use AVRT to recover take a big initial moral hit, but for me, it was a hit that made quitting easier in both the short term and the long term and when I understood the choice of making The Big Plan, I realized it was a blessing of ultimate human competence, absolutely free for the taking.