hi Tatsy, thanks for the post and nice to 'see' you here. As I've posted occasionally in the past on SR, AVRT was key for me. I had actually gotten sober while participating in another method, but at the ~16 month mark, that method was not sitting well with me anymore. I came to SR and someone suggested I take a look at AVRT -- that was a huge eye opener for me, changed my whole understanding and view of my addiction. I read the book, read the threads on here, and made a big plan. Even though I'd been sober for more than a year, my AV attacked me like crazy the week I made a big plan -- whereas I hadn't heard much AV before that. So it definitely did not like me making a decision to never drink again. I drank one sip of alcohol sometime later that year -- no excuse, it was kind of a ceremonial toast situation and I had an attack of vertigo and chose to drink that sip. I reached out to a member of this board who kindly helped me with some techniques to deal with vertigo more effectively when it arises. The AV mostly subsided over the last five years, although there was an uptick in AV thoughts this summer, I don't know why. I realized I was getting mentally lazy about dismissing the thoughts immediately, and letting them linger around a bit. So now I've sort of refreshed my mindfulness about what the AV is up to, and flick them at the first sign, and it's quiet again.
I'm no authority on AVRT, but I'm an authority on my life now, and it's infinitely better without alcohol.