On July 4th I celebrated my Independence Day. It was my 4 year anniversary, well kinda. I’m not sure of the date because I purposely didn’t take note. I know it was in between June 4th (the last time I remember drinking) and July 4th, 2017, which I celebrated happily alcohol-free.

I have a great life with no fear of returning to drinking. I would like to thank SR for guiding me to AVRT. I was at the end of my rope and AVRT saved my life.

I wasn’t going to join SR as I got what I needed by reading the threads & the Rational Recovery book, but I decided to join to pay it forward. I hope somebody reads these threads and is inspired to give AVRT a shot....and we will be here to help.

Love you guys & thanks for being here.

congrats on your sober life msl :)

D

Congratulations ms1999 what a great update!

AVRT course/documentation
 

Hi all,

I'm very interested in doing a course in AVRT. However, I've ADD and it's extremely tedious for me to go through all the posts here (I also can't find the New Thread button). Please send links to courses/documentation. I saw a few videos on Youtube, but they were quite short.

Thanks

Hello, I'm new to this and to quitting drinking and just decided to give this approach a try. It's very inspiring to hear from people who made a commitment to permanent sobriety and that was it, no need to dwell on the discomfort of the endless conflict and hesitation! I'm making this post to motivate myself, so I can come back and see it stated in writing when I struggle.

Hi Wan2bsober - I use this technique, having never heard of it before, and can recommend it.
I had tried for years to stop drinking and always relapsed. I am only 5 months in, so am no expert, but I found giving my desire to drink alcohol a name 'the addictive voice' and separating it from myself very helpful, I learned with the help of this forum and people on here how to recognise the AV and shut it down. If I had doubts I posted here and people helped me to quickly understand that the AV was trying to trick me into drinking. It takes the 'white knuckling' out of 'trying' to stop. You just stop and accept you have stopped drinking - anything other than that is your Addictive Voice trying to get you to start again. I am not saying it wont be hard at times, but as a technique it has been the most helpful to me. There are many useful threads here to read through, I recommend you do that to gain a deeper understanding.

Thank you, Dustyfox! I do feel this technique may be a good fit for me but, honestly, reading these threads makes my head spin. Maybe it's because people have many different interpretations of it and discuss versions they have developed for themselves? I know it's just one part of a series even. I ordered the book where it was originally described, hopefully that will provide more clarity.

AV is any positive thought, feeling ,or image of future drinking and any doubt in the ability to remain abstinent.

The Beast is the desire for alcohol , AV is the bark of the beast that works to indulge the Beast’s desire.

A commitment to abstinence, the Big Plan , once honestly made literally means you consciously decided to never again put alcohol in your system. If you make that decision then logically the residual desire for more alcohol isn’t ‘coming from You’ , that desire itself is IT.

AVRT , Addictive Voice Recognition Technique, allows for isolation , recognition and separation from the desire and enables one to live contentedly in the face of residual desire.

https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...ined-long.html

Hello everyone... I dusted off my RR book and had a read last night. I skimmed over a lot just to see what I remember and looked in depth on some chapters... powerful words by Trimpey! It was the addicto-depressive chapter that gave me some perspective as had a really low mood and think this is the reason. I have only 6 days abstinence atm and say a mantra every time I struggle... glad to say the words are landing!

Congratulations on your decision!

Six days ago YOU quit , IT is always going to struggle with YOUR decision and that’s ok , YOU don’t have to worry about ITs pain , right ?

Rootin for ya