GerandTwine

I guess it boils down to "cure" and "implement". First "cure"; I have not been able to figure out how it is possible that the Big Plan would NOT be a "cure". Second "implement"; what AVRT "implements" is simple Recognition and utter inaction towards more drinking. I think it was LBrain who mentioned in a parallel thread, there may be some trivial voluntary motion away from alcohol, because who wants to carry around a glass of scotch on the rocks indefinitely just because they were told it was ginger ale. I can safely say nothing like that has happened to me over a long, long, long period, and I'm not a hermit.

I'm guessing that after taking the Crash Course online or reading about AVRT, the range of experimentation using AVRT without the Big Plan is from 5 seconds to about a month. Once the Big Plan is made the Beast's goose is cooked. Crossing that threshold into the wide world of common teetotalism occurs. One third of U.S. adults are teetotalers. The next third drink less than 2 drinks a month. The top ten percent of drinkers drink two thirds of all the beverage alcohol in the U.S. That's an average of more than ten drinks a day, every day. (Just saw those stats online, wanted to sneak it in.)

As to PAWS? I will speak only for myself and what I understand about AVRT.

I will first go along with the assumption that biological influences on thoughts and feelings resulting from having consumed lots of alcohol up to two years ago might have an impact on my life. For me, it would be similar to how the consequences of choosing to speed through a just-turned-red light might result in an accident from which biological consequences may linger for up to two years. Experiencing those biological consequences in either situation would lead me to be even MORE reticent about getting into a situation that might cause it to happen again, like drink again, or speed through a red light again.

And AVRT provides what I would call an ideal, quick, black and white filtering process for all those biologically influenced thoughts and feelings that might still be getting created in my brain by all the alcohol and drugs I used up to 2 years ago. Again, I'm going along with an assumption. I'm not convinced that's what actually happened in my brain, but doing AVRT is very easy to comprehend.

I believe a study on bad thoughts and feelings in, say, the first year after quitting of people who use AVRT with The Big Plan as contrasted with people who join the Recovery Group Movement and get Addiction Treatment would show that the life difficulties decrease faster in those who use AVRT with the Big Plan. I also believe the Big Plan rewires the brain in a way that short circuits the old excuses-to-drink patterns of the past; and AVRT will nail it to the wall when something might try to slip through. I don't think those excuses-to-drink stories from the past are understood by PAWS treaters the same way they are understood in AVRT.

And I also believe AVRT does not suggest I avoid therapy for psychological problems, I would just make sure the separation between having quit for good and the therapy is clear. I believe it would be sad to find a therapist who might recommend I was dangerously egomaniacal to believe I could decide to never drink again, and that I could really make use of some sort of immersion into a milieu of struggling alcoholics (with this SR - SC forum not fitting that definition in my mind).

I think those people who believe in the need for outside forces to keep alcohol out of their mouths do not have this rewiring of the brain. I believe this from my own experience having originally been in the recovery group movement for a period of time and also having made three Big Plans on different things and my reactions to opportunities to use before and after.

I think people believing their plans regarding the future use of alcohol are out of their personal control will be more comfortably able to segue into what PAWS treatment providers offer, although I don't know what that would be. From my position today as a common teetotaler I like to see AVRT understood clearly and uncorrupted as the lore of how self reliant Phormer Drunks (PhDs) join the vast majority of the population for whom drinking/drugging is a non-issue.