Originally Posted by
AlericB 
It's not a question of which way is 'right' or 'wrong'. It's a pragmatic matter of what works for the individual.
If you can stay abstinent by challenging any conflicting thoughts and beliefs about drinking you may have then obviously that's fine for you.
If you can't resolve your conflicting thoughts through a process of disputation then you may find it useful to introduce the idea of a 'Beast' and to dissociate from it's thinking and of course that's equally fine.
There is no one way that will work best for everyone.
I don’t think anyone’s questioning that a strong pleasure driven appetite drive is what we’re dealing with here. With that in mind this is not about people who “can’t resolve [their] conflicting thoughts through a process of disputation”. Algorithm just showed how he was perfectly capable of utilizing the disputation process. It’s just that the “resolving” part ends up differently because he discovered the disputation process simply doesn’t work against that appetite which is very rationally ensconced. Algorithm chose to move on with AVRT to irrationally attack and solve his drinking problem once and for all time. So, it’s not a matter of incompetency with disputation. I see it as a matter of he is not so wedded to a theory of counseling, that he can’t set it aside for a method that will allow him to spend only seconds per year, instead of wrangling with choice after choice after choice down the road as his life changes and just maybe it will be perfectly rational to try drinking again.
I’m sure MG has tried all kinds of disputation, and has resolved to adopt her Smokey the Beast’s rationality, at least for the time being. Fortunately, MG can still utilize AVRT at any time, and use the lore of addiction recovery that’s been around for centuries to immediately stop smoking forever.