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09-25-2012, 01:23 PM

# 21 (permalink)

SoberSteve

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Join Date: Jul 2012

Location: Atlanta, GA

Posts: 59

6 months is awesome! Big Congrats! BJ

six.jpg

09-25-2012, 02:27 PM

# 22 (permalink)

F355

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Thread Starter

Join Date: Dec 2011

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Posts: 153

Quote:

Originally Posted by freshstart57

TallGuyUK, there is this thing about AVRT and other self recovery ideas. It is not the ideas that work, it is you that does the work. The success you will have starts with the vow to never drink again and the stone conviction that you will succeed. Belief in self empowers you in all things - since you can kick this addiction, your potential is unlimited.

Well stated, freshstart57.

09-25-2012, 02:31 PM

# 23 (permalink)

F355

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Join Date: Dec 2011

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Posts: 153

Quote:

Originally Posted by tammy711

I've found AVRT incredibly easy. Almost too easy, so I stay cautious and alert. I think objectifying the instinctive brain (booze brain) is what has worked best for me. ( E.g. "It" wants a drink.)

I have essentially separated my rational brain from my booze brain by simply objectifying it whenever I know "it" is what is talking and not me. The key is to recognize that addictive voice as early as possible and shut it down ASAP.

The more times you do this, the easier things become - right now I can go days without a single thought about drinking. Eventually, as I continue using AVRT concepts and stay focused on my recovery plan, I hope days turn to weeks and weeks to months and months to years. :- )

Cheers!

You make a great point, Tammy. The AVRT method does become second nature/feel surprisingly easy once you get the hang of it. The real difficulty starting out is that the physical/chemical addiction has us in its grip and it can often take a Herculean effort to break that cycle initially. But once the cycle is broken (which actually happens in phases, I think... first a 4 day phase, then about a 15 day phase, then 3 months, then 6 months, which is where I am at now), you find yourself implementing the AVRT process with less and less effort.

09-25-2012, 04:05 PM

# 24 (permalink)

Dalek

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Join Date: May 2012

Posts: 309

Quote:

Originally Posted by tammy711

I've found AVRT incredibly easy. Almost too easy, so I stay cautious and alert.

The idea that AVRT is "too simple, too easy" is pure Addictive Voice. It suggests that what you have done is insufficient, and that there is something else that needs doing, or else the Beast will get you to drink. Without recognizing it as AV, the result is uncertainty about future abstinence. Your AV is sowing seeds of doubt with this idea, and this is probably the reason you still feel a need to stay cautious and alert, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tammy711

The key is to recognize that addictive voice as early as possible...

I agree; see my comment above.

09-25-2012, 10:07 PM

# 25 (permalink)

F355

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Thread Starter

Join Date: Dec 2011

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Posts: 153

I think you may have slightly misinterpreted what tammy had said, Dalek... I think what she meant to say was that AVRT really works. That's all.

And it does!

I get what you're saying, though. You are right to point out that the Addictive Voice wants to trick our rational selves back into drinking, in any which way that it can, so we must be ever vigilant. What we are doing here is classic AVRT, we are recognizing the Addictive Voice and shutting it down!