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Hello Dee,

AVRT is generally neutral on spiritual or religious matters, but it can dovetail nicely with traditional religion that supports free will, to the chagrin of some atheists who would prefer a secular recovery club.

The structural model of AVRT shows us that the desire to drink/use -- the Beast -- has no direct means to get what it wants. It cannot control the muscles, and it must appeal to us (via the AV) to convince us to give IT what it wants.

It does this in a number of ways, but mostly, the AV appears to be you, or it tries to inject fear and doubt about your own ability to remain perfectly abstinent in the presence of desire that cannot fulfill itself. It did so as you typed this post, for example.

The underlined part from your post above is your Addictive Voice -- any thinking or feeling that supports, or suggests your possible future use of alcohol and other drugs.

All self-doubt about perfect lifetime abstinence suggests the opposite, and is AV -- the Beast talking in your head.

If you have not done so, get yourself a copy of the following book:
You can always purchase it from the RR web site, but you can get it cheaper from Amazon or eBay, and used copies are practically free. While you wait for the book to arrive, go to the RR web site (rational.org), work through the free crash course on AVRT, and read through the discussion threads on this forum.

AVRT Discussion Thread on Sober Recovery

1. RR
2. RR
3. RR
4. RR
5. RR
6. RR

There are also some other interesting threads I recommend:

1. Tatsy's Thread -
   
2. Flame11's Thread -
   
3. Tursiops999's Thread -
4. Freshstart57's Thread -

These threads should bring you up to speed fairly quickly, but feel free to post any questions.