Originally Posted by
kanamit 
On re-reading the RR book I found a point that resonated with me. In the early part of Part II (The Action on page 121) he mentions that you may be in a supermarket and see some strawberries and think to yourself, I'll take that without paying for it, but you don't.
This makes good sense to me and shows that we actually use AVRT many times in that we recognise and ignore the pleasure/survival drive all the time.
Yes, we do. Think about how your sex drive works. If we were to act on every impulse our body generates, we'd probably end up in jail. In recovery culture, there is a lot of emphasis placed on "desire," wanting the desire for alcohol removed, the absence or presence of desire, etc. I always laugh when I see those brain scans showing an addict's brain light up like a Christmas tree when they see their favorite stuff, as if it were a revelation.
Wanting the desire for alcohol to be removed is like wanting to be castrated because you have "bad" thoughts whenever you see a pretty girl walk by. I certainly wouldn't want that brain scan machine hooked up to me when that happens. With AVRT, you abstain
in spite of desire, and the phrase
"I have no desire to drink" naturally begs the question:
"What if you did? What then?"
Originally Posted by
kanamit In this case, the Beast wanted the immediate pleasure of the strawberry but morally this was wrong so the the individual recognised the thought, ignored it and took no action. So long as you find shoplifting morally objectionable there is no way you would get into a should you/shouldn't you debate as to whether you should steal.
I can say with 100% certainty I will never shoplift, and I will never change my mind. I need to view drinking as the same.
If you can add drinking to the small list of things that you know you will never do, you'll find that you recognize the Addictive Voice almost without effort.