I think you're splitting hairs over what constitutes "action". There's usually a lot of talk about "action" and "getting out of your head" to preemptively ward off the Beast (addictive desire) in other paradigms, which I suspect is why it caught GerandTwine's attention, but AVRT is not that type of action. AVRT is premised on the fact that you cannot actually drink/use without first thinking about drinking or using. You can therefore also not drink/use (ie, not act) if you recognize such thoughts as they arise.
Reading the Rational Recovery book, doing the exercises in the book, and learning about AVRT constitutes "action", and the Big Plan is certainly decisive action, but once AVRT is incorporated into one's thought process, there isn't much action going on outside our mind space. AVRT eventually becomes automatic, running in the background. Unless we consider the mental work required for recognition action, the word "action" does not really describe AVRT properly. In using AVRT, I spend a lot of time in my head, so to speak, not acting.
Is thinking action? It certainly uses up calories, and some mental work, such as solving a math problem in your head, probably uses up more calories than just thinking about the weather. I don't think neurons firing off is considered action in common usage, though.