Thank you…and goodbye!
 

Hi everyone,

I can't imagine it will make much difference to anyone but after much deliberation I have decided to leave this SR.

It was thanks to this forum I found out about AVRT from Rational Recovery. To say that it worked and is effective would be a huge understatement. Once I 'got it' I knew that drinking was over for me. I hung around for a bit though because I wanted to give something back; whether I did or not is anybody's guess.

It has been an absolute pleasure to discuss AVRT with you all. The quality of dabating you get here shows that often highly intelligent people succumb to to so-called benefits of alcohol.

I would like to say a special thank you to Terminally Unique. I think I speak on behalf of many people here when I say I am grateful for the time and effort he spends here helping people learn about AVRT. I would never have found this without his help so for what it is worth you can be rest assured you've helped at least one person.

I will never drink again, and I will never change my mind. I have already achieved several things that I could never do while drinking. My Beast seemed like a worthy opponent for many years but I had the last laugh. Its sentence is lifetime imprisonment on my terms. The fact that I will never change my mind means life without parole. Poor thing.

I beat this and do you know what? It was easy. I wish you all the best, you deserve it.

Your archived posts will help others in the future, no doubt.

Thanks, and enjoy your freedom!

Just remember SR will always be here at least I hope it will be. I would say good luck but as you know it is not a matter of luck so God's speed.

That's the idea of avrt, isn't it? You go and live your life. Thank you and Godspeed (in a secular sort of way!)

It runs counter to group expansion, but this is ultimately what AVRT-style recovery is supposed to look like. A forum setting such as SR is an ideal way to allow for this sort of thing while still retaining past insight for others who may come later.

Best of luck Kanamit :)

I actually will notice your absence.
Feel free to drop in again :)

D

Kanamit, wishing you all good things. Your posts were a helpful part of the AVRT discussions and I appreciated that. Take good care.
Sally

Thanks everyone. I guess it is more a thank you than a goodbye. The point is I have quit!

I sent a note of thanks to Jack Trimpey by the way and got a reply fairly quickly. Nice guy!

Both Jack and Lois are passionate about the work they do, and they will often respond personally.

I don't doubt it. I think the fact you can take the course online gratis and that the book claims to be a complete guide to lifelong recovery (and it really does seem like an advert for the face-to-face courses) shows that Rational Recovery is not all about money—despite being a for-profit company.

That's really cool that you did that! It was nice having you here....I have no doubt you will succeed with this.

Most people who make it a point to differentiate between not-for-profit and for-profit entities have no idea what the actual difference is. Non-profit status was designed to give tax breaks to legitimate charities, but it has mutated into a tax-evasion maneuver. Non-profit status does not mean that nobody is making money, it just means that in exchange for not paying taxes, the organization has to pump all profits right back into the business, or at least towards its general mission. Hazelden is a non-profit foundation, for example, but they still charge $10,000 for outpatient addiction treatment and $28,300 for residential, inpatient rehab.

I think it is daft to criticise RR for making money anyway. They save lives; no one would begrudge a Doctor for spending years in training to then take home a decent salary. Likewise, Jack Trimpey has spent years finding out about the lore of self-recovery and put it down it a very effective book/website. Good for him I say!

The notion that addiction help should be non-profit is reflective of the underlying thought that alcohol addicts are diseased and powerless; that they're victims and need help from others. Since this thought field doesn't apply to AVRT, it surely wouldn't make sense for them to offer it for free and it would be of more use to be concerned if they did NOT charge money since they'd be contradicting their own beliefs about addiction.

Rational Recovery was originally a non-profit entity, but the board of directors attempted a hostile takeover when they saw AVRT coming down the pike.

Yes a lot of not for profit groups have very expensive recovery centres behind them, smart and lifering both have, i'd give the links but i don't have enough posts yet :tapping.

SMART Recovery is a spin-off of Rational Recovery consisting of professionals who believe that addiction is a psychological problem or has psychological origins. They waste peoples' time disputing irrational ideas and getting people to attend their recovery group meetings. SMART uses my literary albatross, The Small Book, and they refuse to recommend the later, and far better book, Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction, which takes the reader directly to complete recovery within the time it takes to read the book. The reason they won't recommend the better book, is that it eliminates the need to attend SMART meetings and makes fun of REBT pop-psychology. Stop wasting your time with recovery groups, and get the Rational Recovery book at your local bookstore.

Jack Trimpey

'Yes a lot of not for profit groups have very expensive recovery centres behind them, smart and lifering both have, i'd give the links but i don't have enough posts yet'

When you can paste in links or have the time to write out the names of these centres that would be great as I'm curious.

Oh, and a belated goodbye to the OP.

Anyone with internet access can easily Google either of those places. No need for special post links, if you really want to ask that question.

BTW, the OP is still around.

FT

FT, bet you a nickle you can't find them, even if you do have internet access somewhere and have used Google before.

I realize this thread is about AVRT in regard to drinking but has anyone tried the technique with other things? I used a technique from meditation, the idea is that you look at your thoughts as an outside observer, examine the thought, ask yourself it's rational and if not let it go as opposed to dwelling on it. For example if your angry, anxious, depressed or you feel any of the fear based stuff entering your consciousness you examine the thoughts behind those things and ask if they're rational, in most cases you'll find they are not. It may not always get rid of the bad stuff 100% but it does take a lot of power out of it.

Here's an example of the application, I had to go to a court hearing last week and was getting all stressed out and anxious about it. I examined the thoughts behind it and realized that they were all just fear based stuff. Things always work out one way or another and almost 100% of the time it's the thoughts that turn the small stuff into major obstacles.

So then, why couldn't you use Rational Recovery in a lot of different ways. Instead of the addictive voice, substitute the anger, anxiety, fear or whatever voice, recognize it for what it is and instead of making yourself crazy over those things realize that they're all based on thoughts that arise from a part of your brain that wants to convince you that they're rational when in fact they are not?