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Aellyce2 ~
Your Post #25 above is really masterful stuff, and I'll build upon this:
'IMO. I have the impression that most of us who like and succeed with a self-directed approach like AVRT are already pretty good at self-actualization, naturally. So remove the addiction and it's effortless and satisfying. It makes so much sense!'
I joke about having a Spine forged from Titanium & Kryptonite. When I decide to do something, I simply find a way to do it. I applied those Genetics toward quitting Drinking. A few Months later, I searched for - and found - this invaluable Resource called SR. It put form to my quit. I read the Slides mentioned here re: Rational Recovery, and I never looked back. As with about all of us, it was initially a dreadfully tough Row to hoe. But, I stuck it out as the rough patches got easier after ~42 Years of increasingly-insane consumption. There will 'always' be reasons to cave. So, I don't. As goes one AVRT saying around here: 'It's not easy. But, it is simple'.
Thus, my focus for you to consider. I, too, had to intellectually understand this Addiction 'thing' from multiple angles. Digested all that knowledge to death. What I ultimately extracted, however, I would liken to Muscle Memory. Like, spiking a Volleyball, or hitting a long Golf Shot many times, it's automatic. This leads to what I call 'Effortless Sobriety'. That is, when in tough times - about nonexistent for me now - my default is to laugh at my AV, and then not pick up. No Matter What! Rather than wring my Hands over what might be the impossibility of 'removing the Addiction', I instead happily settled on 'removing acting upon my Addiction'. <<< That action is non-conditional. If I achieve that, what do I care about my residual - possibly Genetic - Addiction? Personally, despite all my intellectual understanding of it, I wind up not caring.
That's what makes AVRT work for me. One Hemisphere of my Brain can intermittently, or continuously, work all the intellectual angles. But, the Muscle Memory Default is not dependent upon all that understanding. Any more than ya 'think through' slamming a Volleyball Spike. I don't have to 'understand' all the Neural 'stuff' going on during a Spike. Just do it autonomically.
As became my Mantra, there are things I just don't do. Kick my Puppy. Cheat on my Wife. Steal from a Friend's Wallet while he ducks out to the Bathroom. I added 'never drink again' to that non-negotiable List; the sort of Behavioral List most all of us have. Hence my Sig Line below re: this sort of compartmentalization. Not Drinking is a Mental Construct that most all of us can master. Finally, it becomes The New Normal...