In my experience, the AV does not give up and go away because you got sober. I still hear from mine, although it's rare. But in the early stages, the trick is not to somehow deactivate it. It's too much a part of you, and it is not going anywhere. You aren't getting rid of it for a long time. But it will become less of a bother. It will still be there, but more like an annoying guy that drinks way to much coffee. When that happens, it ceases to be a threat, just a jabbering fool with zero power. It's just words and doesn't have ultimate power over you.
How much it bothers you may correlate to how secure you feel about yourself in your sobriety. When you come to the point where you want to quit for good and commit to that, the AV becomes just background noise, and eventually fades away. The thing to keep in mind is that the AV is only thoughts. Your actions trump your thoughts every time. That's where the center of your power lies.
And of course, no one ever said this was supposed to be easy.