Originally Posted by
Thrifty 
GT, I'm not sure I get what you mean in your last post. I think it is important though to understand how we (or it) uses bad feelings. Can you elaborate?
I used the critical sentence from PurpleCatLover's post as the subject. It's described in Figure 4. on p. 183 of Rational Recovery: The New Cure.
The proof that people don't drink to get rid of bad experiences, feelings, or thoughts, is made by looking closely at what takes place between DECIDING to drink and FEELING THE EFFECTS after taking the drink. Anyone can do this by recalling past episodes.
People inevitably discover that, yes, they were feeling rotten when the idea to drink came to mind and was decided upon. But, in reviewing in detail the process of obtaining, opening, pouring, swallowing the alcohol, and waiting for it to kick in - and recalling what thoughts and feelings were happening during those very deliberate (and often time consuming) steps - people also inevitably discover that the original bad feelings and thoughts were gone and they were already feeling quite OK in anticipation of what they were just about to experience, that great buzz from booze. Yet, their blood alcohol content was still zero at that point.
So, it's not the actual buzz from booze that gets rid of the negativity. It's simply a series of thoughts and beliefs that did it. Bringing this awareness into the forefront of consciousness is what blows the cover of the AV. It wants you to believe that the alcohol is required to get rid of the negativity, but you now know it's not. You did it simply through thoughts and beliefs.
As PCL said, "It would just keep holding on to any bad feeling, even if it was gone, to get me to drink." Now that she knows what was going on, it exposes the AV's grand bluff and IT can't do it again.
Now, to go beyond the scope of AVRT, if you want, it's quite possible to figure out some other thoughts and beliefs to get rid of negativity. Naturally, it's ridiculous to imagine the anticipation of drinking would be the ONLY thoughts and beliefs that could do it. Of course, your AV wants you to keep believing that. But to believe that you MUST figure out how to get rid of negative thoughts and experiences in order to not drink is also your AV.