Dee,
It's good to see you back and active.
I think "cope" has a spectrum of meanings, and I believe you're correct with that definition of the intransitive use of "cope with".
My feeling of incompatibility with the phrase "AVRT to cope with..." can best be described from the following edited quote:
(from p. 213 of Rational Recovery, The New Cure for Substance Addiction, by Jack Trimpey, 1996)
Experts ... give convincing and fascinating arguments that addiction has many causes, ... and that a recovery program must deal with these issues so that recovering people can cope. ... Yet AVRT insists that addiction has but one cause, the Addictive Voice, and it sets you adrift on the wavy sea. "It can't be this simple," you may hear. "You need help, but you can't be helped."
Moreover, your life was organized for years around drinking and the high life, and that pleasure became the meaning of life. If you felt bad, you drank to feel better; if you felt good, you drank to enjoy feeling good. ... From time to time, as the substance took effect, it seemed worth it all. "Ahhhhh! That's better," said your Beast, as you lifted of into the "home zone" of sensory pleasure.
Now you abstain from that pleasure. It is not an option or even a possibility. (from p. 213 of Rational Recovery, The New Cure for Substance Addiction, by Jack Trimpey, 1996)
So, using Trimpey's metaphor, I'd rather be "adrift on the wavy sea" of life with my Big Plan and AVRT, than "coping with" my addiction by struggling to "keep my head above water" (a definition for "cope with" from my computer's dictionary) in the belief I have to do certain prescribed behaviors to keep alcohol (or sugar) out of my mouth. This way, I get to be in control of my future, not some recovery program, because AVRT is ONLY about NOT doing something, and that can soon come to take virtually NO time and effort.
I want to make sure to add that I believe it can be very sensible for recovered people to choose to get "mental health" assistance from professionals. But, for myself, I would only choose professionals who would accept that my addiction had already been solved through my personally planned permanent abstinence.
GT