Originally Posted by
MindfulMan 
My life is better when I don’t drink or use... That keeps me sober far more effectively than dwelling on the consequences of drinking and using.
There is no need to dwell on the past with AVRT. The Big Plan is a conscious decision to remove the option of choosing to use again in the future, based on previous personal experience. If there will be no more drinking or using in the future, then logically, there will not be any consequences that need dwelling upon.
Originally Posted by
MindfulMan I loathe the term morals. In my experience it’s mostly used by those that think they have the monopoly on them.
There is a difference between morality and moralism. Morality is an internal decision-making system which provides the ability to judge between right and wrong. It is a ruler by which things can be measured, and found to be worthy, or not. It is a filter that strains out the wrong, leaving what is right.
Moralism, on the other hand, is the elevation of a particular moral system to a universal status, which is presumed to be applicable to all. It is a measuring stick not of what is right or wrong for oneself, but of what is right or wrong for others.
We make the rules in our own lives, and AVRT restores the moral axis to addiction recovery, as a counterweight to the Beast's declaration of everlasting innocence. It does not suggest any sort of universal morality, which would be applicable to all, however. Universal prohibition is not a part of AVRT.
It may interest you to know, in case you have not have actually read the book yet, that Jack and Lois Trimpey dedicated
Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction to
Margaret Sanger, who was prosecuted for disseminating information on family planning. At the time, self-avowed moralists had made that illegal.
From the Acknowledgements section:
This book is dedicated to Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. Today, contraception and family planning are available to all American citizens largely due to her willingness to confront the religious zealots of her day who used their powerful positions in government and God's name to censor information on contraception and family planning. The result was needless suffering and death, as well as government destruction of personal liberty. Ms. Sanger, at considerable expense to herself and her own family, breathed life into the word choice at a time when giving knowledge of contraception was a crime. She understood what needed to be done, and she did it. As a social reformer, she set a standard that activists and reformers today can strive to match.
One day soon, concise information on planned abstinence from substances may also be available to all citizens. This book is a beginning, our effort to achieve that important goal.
From Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction
Copyright © 1996 by Jack and Lois Trimpey