OK...I'm going to jump in...and I'm just gonna say it as I see it...no offence intended...
I'm a "Zen Buddhist" (whatever that means lol) and the idea of one self, much less two just doesn't work for me. Yet I sometimes talk as if this were true...I've chosen to not go with AVRT because given who I am (yep very non-buddhist LOL) its a poor choice of paths for me. The last thing I need is what you refered to as cognative disodince (ignore my spelling please!). Letting go of the concept of self has helped me immensly in my struggles and when I am not doing well I am way into the idea of some permenant ID....
It has been critical to me to take into account my own expereince and yet not cling to it. I'm not sure this will help you, but writing it helps me. In a program we can't talk about...they talk about being a square peg trying to fit in a round hole....and I was finally told .... look for a square hole LOL what a concept!
I am similar to you in that I can't twist myself into something else in order to get sober. There will always be some things I would drink rather than do....I would take a drink before I would let someone shoot another person or shoot someone myself...I would drink before I would kill myself...That's my decision. But...Those things don't really come into play in day to day life.
Yep...we all have lingo... you seem to have some pshycological/social pshycology background...try to just see beyond the words used. look at the actions and ideas being expressed.
but the one thing I was told on my recent restart into actual sobriety is...we can do the philisophical discussions later...for now don't drink...no matter what...to get to permanant sobriety I think we have to do more, but start where you are...don't drink...if you have to buy bullsht to do it fine...whatever it takes for the first few days, weeks or months...eventually you will have the opportunity to, will be required to make the step of actually thinking your way through the real "meaning" the long term stuff....but actually not picking up the drink is the important first step and the rest is a lifetime process. So quit, explore and grow....Drunk will always mess up your cognative thinking and mess up your ability to think logically
(again ... sorry my spelling is so bad
)
Nands
Originally Posted by
Wilting 
I am very new to all of this, so I am apprehensive and curious. Since this is the secular section I guess I'll just come out and say it: not only am I an atheist (not by choice, by my inability to believe that for which there is limited and flawed to no evidence) skeptic and attempted rational thinker, I am skeptical and hesitant to the extreme when it comes to claims I am completely unfamiliar with.
So, the beast. I get that we have inherently contradictory desires, and I get that one is the addiction and not really us, but why are we anthropomorphising it to such an extreme that its almost insisting that we have an entirely separate entity, with desires and even a sentience of its own? To me that seems like woo-woo. Don't get me wrong, as I said I am new to this. I'm just very confused. Why can't we speak of the desires and motivations as an inherent part of an addictive mind, rather than a capitalised mythological seeming "Beast" that lives inside our mind?
I'm merely asking because, while I do want to get better, and quit drinking, if I have to convince myself of irrational things to do it, then I'm out. Not that I do believe that I'd have to do that in order to quit.
I guess what I am asking is this: (with immense due respect) is the lingo simply misleading to a newbie and this beast is just a handy way to express certain cognitive functions,or is the term "rational" being misused? I just want to make sure I'm in the right community,because for me to recover in a healthy way I want to approach this in a literally rational and logical way, and I feel that if I start down a line to recovery and discover that I'm in some kind of cult then that could irreparably damage the recovery I so desperately need.
Again, much respect and no accusations. Just questions and concerns.
Wilting