Old 08-20-2016, 04:57 AM
  # 10 (permalink)  
Fusion
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Join Date: Feb 2016
Posts: 2,654
Originally Posted by freshstart57 View Post
Hi Tatsy, and welcome! Here's a thing: a longitudinal study by the NIAA of over 40,000 alcohol dependent folks showed that about 75% of us get sober and stay sober without a formal recovery program. Yowza!

I am sober now for five years using the principles of AVRT. I had a Heart to Heart with myself and made the decision that the last drink I had had was the last drink I would ever have, and then set out to find out how. I went to some meetings and found SR, and a member named Terminally Unique pointed me to Rational Recovery. And that was that! I post here to tell you that you can do exactly as I did, as AVRT is nothing more than the collected lore of those who quit 'on their own', and you can do it too.

Recognize that this AV you mentioned is any thought of drinking again. AND (this is important) it is also any whiff of doubt in your ability to do this thing. Av is also fear of failure as it is keeping you from making your Big Plan.

The only time that any change can happen, the only time we can act, is in the present moment, and out of all of those present moments there will be, this one now is by far the best one.

Believe in you, Tatsy. Believe. Make that leap. I know how hard it can seem, especially after the beating we have taken, for decades, in my case anyway. I know the shame, the guilt, the sadness, the depression, fear and anxiety that accompany addiction to alcohol. And I also know, as you will too, how much better life can be without the booze. You will wonder, as I did, why you waited so long.

Please keep posting as there is a lot of support here for you. YOU CAN DO IT!
Oh Freshstart, I've been digesting SR posts for months other sites, books, solutions etc., for years. I've suffered a drinking problem/addiction for decades too. In all those years, I've never felt as though I'm on the verge of a shift towards an alcohol free life, but after finding secular recovery (and reading the threads of Terminally Unique and your posts therein) together with the replies from you good folks, I feel ready, I believe this approach will work for me.

It's an uplifting feeling, like preparing to parachute jump, apprehensive, frightened, excited, but there's the AV equivalent, reminding you of the fatality statistics, the AV using its other tactic, telling me not to do something. In fact I've missed out on many opportunities for enjoyment, so that I could sit alone and blackout. What a waste of a life.

I'm still dithering over the RR book, in light of the replies to my question, I probably don't need it, but I'm afraid my AV will use it as a tool "you haven't made a proper BP as you didn't read the book". If I buy it I can quell that thought of my AV. I want to do this right, the once, then work to clear the battlefield of my life, strewn with the wreckage created whilst living under the influence of alcohol.

Once again, thank you to everyone who has contributed.
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