Originally Posted by
mirrorball 
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I've had a few cravings, but as I have deleted all contacts and have no using friends anymore, there's no chance of getting any. I know these cravings are not the real me - they are my AV. I keep telling myself 'this way of life is better. I If the other way was better, if I truly believed that, I'd make a choice to continue but as it is I've made a choice that this way is better and to stop.'
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Hi Mb,
Its nice to see your life is becoming teetotalicious.
You do have a sneaky AV, though, which is not accepting your Big Plan at all. Your above paragraph is loaded with AV.
First IT gets you to divide your abstinent self in two - “I keep telling myself” - like there are two of YOU. No, there is YOU and IT. IT wants you to have a part of yourself that feels alien and contrary to never getting high on cocaine ever again. Your AV is trying to pose as YOU.
Then it immediately goes into the present tense about snorting again. Instead of saying “
I would have made a choice to continue...” IT keeps all the decision making still alive and up in the air with “
I’d make a choice to continue...”. So, your not using seems based on a complex belief about a “...way of life...” that most people continually reevaluate, particularly about what kind of pleasures they like to try next. (different places to visit, people, foods, entertainments, experiences, etc.)
Then IT finishes the whole paragraph off with your “choice” not being the Big Plan, but instead an indeterminate infinitive with conditions “...
this way is better and to stop.”
AVRT alternate = “...
as it is, I’ve made a choice that I will never drink/drug again.”
Once the Big Plan is done, the choosing is over, the addiction is over, the recovery is over.
Addictive Voice Recognition Technique is all about just a little bit of conscientious thinking.
GT