Obladi, I'm definitely nowhere near as informed as the guys on this thread, but I just thought I'd pop in to say that, at first, I was quite frightened by my AV - I sort of wished I didn't know anything about this strange AVRT thing because knowing about the AV sort of heightened it, in a way. I didn't really know what to do/think/say back. In the end I just thought "oh, I know what you are. I'm not listening" and basically, ignored it. Every time the thoughts came into my mind, I listened but did not react. Which I suppose is the whole point - just recognising the voice, which I did. Over time (and it was a short period of time, actually) the voice just got quieter and quieter until it barely spoke to me at all. I don't know HOW that happened or WHY it happened, but it works - all you really have to do is recognise that voice over a period of time and it gets bored of pestering you.
Also, when I first started coming to SR I had terrible difficulties with it, too... I found that it made me feel worse but I'm so glad I continued to come, though, because now I can't get enough of it! I think it was a hurdle because it made me analyse my behaviour when I drank, and I related to so much of what people were saying that it scared me, I guess. Now I'm totally at home here
and my AV very rarely chatters whilst I'm on here now. It never really chatters at all any more!