Originally Posted by
Dalek 
What if you did have 'cravings' or an interest in smoking? What if the desire to smoke came back? What then?
Does your plan to quit drinking depend on the absence of desire?
What if the desire to drink never goes away?
Is the presence of desire bad?
Is the absence of desire good?
Thanks for your thought-provoking questions! Somehow the rare feelings about smoking are on the order of "oh..it would be nice to be able to have a cigarette....oops...no, that's not something I want to do again". I've had a lot of practice with self-hypnosis, visualization and mindfulness meditation. I seem to be able to quickly banish thoughts about smoking and they now only rarely come up.
I don't think my plan depends on the absence of desire. My experience when I didn't drink for 14years was that, after the worst of the cravings were over, like with smoking I could banish those thoughts.
I don't see the presence or absence of desire as being "good" or "bad". It is what it is and after I'm past the worst, I know it will become easier to manage with time. I did learn from this relapse that I can't become complacent and need to keep in mind that the beast may be banished but can sneak in if I am not watchful.
I'm always receptive to suggestions. I'm still very much in early learning mode about AVRT and have much more to read and digest.