Originally Posted by AlwysConflicted
However much I would like to, I have a different opinion which is very set and which I very much feel to be true which makes me unable to seperate the AV and addiction from other parts of myself. I feel it is very much intertwined in all aspect of my personality and character traits, that it interlinks in all areas of me, my experiences, my thoughts, my feelings, my habits, and I wouldn't even know where to start to try and think of it as something separate from me.
Well, this line of thinking is def AV...as it puts you in a position to feel that you have no control over whether you use or not because it convinces you that it is "a part of your personality".
We all separate from thoughts and don't act on them all throughout the day without realizing it. Certain things (and for each of us they may be different) are simply
not something we do, and while those thoughts may come, they are fleeting and they are dismissed automatically. I could cut in line at the grocery store, I could swipe someone's lunch from the breakroom, I could have an affair with a married person, I could cheat on my taxes, I could steal things I don't have the money for, I could post my ex's naked pics on line to get back at them...there are a million things I may entertain for a brief second that my morality guides me to avoid. I have put drinking/using in that category. While my mind may go there occasionally, it's just not something I do. I see AVRT as a tweaking of a natural process that we as humans already do, that is targeted specifically toward thoughts of drinking/using. Nothing more complicated than that for me.
The idea that we can separate from desire is not exclusive to AVRT, nor is it a new idea by any stretch. People have been doing this for thousands of years in one form or another.