I’m glad you didn’t drink, Sohard. I hit the 18 month sober mark a week ago, with previously almost non-existent AV, since Christmas Eve, when my AV said ‘Yay, it’s christmas carols at the village pub, you haven’t drank in ages, you’re over addiction now and can resume normal drinking, mulled wine, hot toddy’s’. What a joker my AV is!
So at 18 months it piped up again ‘Wow, I’m awesome, I’ve achieved 18 months, I’ve only achieved 11 days previously in over twenty years.....let’s celebrate and drink’. I view it as pre-programming and it has a definite extinction curve. Twice it reared it’s head between Christmas and 18 months, I just ignore it. In the early days, I found the more attention you give it, the more real the cravings feel, ignoring and focusing attention on anything else worked for me.