Terminally Unique

My understanding is that AVRT is registered in order to prevent it from being incorporated into an addiction treatment program or being offered as a professional service, which would alter its meaning as a method of self-recovery. If you are thinking of using it in a book, I would suggest contacting Rational Recovery directly to get permission to do so.

Terminally Unique

I haven't read this myself, so I can't really comment on it, but RR does have that "Taming the Feast Beast" book. I do know it was written before RR:TNC, however, so I expect that the presentation of AVRT is not quite as comprehensive in that book. Might be a good complement, though.

kanamit

That is a useful quote, thanks.

For when I finally get round to it, I was just going to post it online for free, to anyone that wants it.

Given how quickly Jack Trimpey responded to me when I emailed him, I guess I'm best off going straight to the horse's mouth.

kanamit

I have just downloaded this to my phone and will let you know once I've read it.

Terminally Unique

There was a link posted on another thread to a website peddling an 'adapted' perversion of AVRT that intentionally allows for planned drunks.

Word to the wise: THIS IS NOT AVRT.

Addiction recovery, as defined by AVRT, is planned, permanent abstinence. The Addictive Voice, as defined by AVRT is "any thinking, imagery, or feeling that supports or suggests the possible future use of alcohol or drugs -- ever."

Harm reduction assumes that you will keep drinking and getting high, actively and purposefully. By their own definition and mission statement, "HAMS is all about empowering people to use alcohol or drugs in a safe and sane manner." If that isn't pristine Addictive Voice, I don't know what is. Those harm reductionists on that web site are making things up as they go along so that they can keep getting high.

Terminally Unique

I posted this in response to a question about whether or not you would go back to drinking if there weren't any health consequences, but I think it deserves mention on here. Many people stop drinking and then continually tell themselves that they don't drink because "it doesn't feel good anymore."

It is subtle, but this sentiment is AV, since it implies that if it did feel good, that you would go ahead and drink. It may 'not feel good' now, but it sure did at some point, and your Beast isn't likely to ever forget that. Furthermore, if you make your abstinence contingent on drinking 'not feeling good', all your Beast has to do is convince you that it would feel good, and it has plenty of time to do this.

You have to close this Beast hole. I had to quit drinking in spite of it feeling good, because, while it no longer felt very good by the time I quit, here's how my head talk would sound:

I: Boy, drinking sure doesn't feel very good these days. I think I'll stop drinking.
AV: You need a drink.

I: Drinking doesn't feel good anymore, it won't be worth it.

AV: Well, that was back then when you swore off. You've been sober for 'X' days now, though. Surely it will fell good now that you've gotten healthy again.

I: Hmm... It has a point.

(GLUG GLUG GLUG)

soberlicious

If you make your abstinence contingent on anything other than abstinence, there are holes. All contingencies are AV.

Bob36

Im not sure if this is against the posting policy- if so - just delete, I wont be offended. But, I decided upon reading the first threads that Im going this route- still going to another popular program of recovery for the support and to hear stories etc.
At todays gathering the reading was such that 3 people confessed to not believing in a higher power- I was flabbergasted- they were pretty advanced in recovery (actually It was only two- I was the third) again- if this is out of protocol just delete- I don't want to mess with anyones efforts.

Terminally Unique

Bob36,

It is not uncommon for people first learning AVRT to still go to meetings. You should be aware, though, that viewed through the lens of AVRT, much of the lingo (ie, the slogans) will be identified as Addictive Voice ("any thinking, imagery, or feeling that supports or suggests the possible future use of alcohol or drugs -- ever").

For example:

Slogan: "Meeting Makers Make It"

AV: If you don't make a meeting, you might drink!

Slogan: "Don't get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired (HALT)"

AV: If you get hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, you might drink!

etc., etc.

Terminally Unique

Are you sure you're not an 'AVRT person', soberlicious?

Bob36

I get that TU-thanks to having read more thoroughly. Ill still go- if for no other reason than to cheerlead.
Ive had a wonderful week and have no doubt that I will never use coke again. Funny,but before someone thought to trademark the word "beast" my father and grandfather both quit drinking based on similar principles. My grandfather quit compulsive gamblimg as well. I look foward to learning the techniques more. But the concept reasonates powerfully- Icouldnt stop laughing as i read the site.
Some of the observations made remind me of things I used to say long ago. Also- things i routinely say to my kids.

soberlicious

LOL Let's just say I have an AVRTish nature...

californiapoppy

For DominoRose, there is an "Eating Disorder" Forum on Sober Recovery, you might find people who know more about what you are going through.

Just to let you know also, I speak and write fluent French if ever you have a problem understanding, but your English seems perfectly fluent to me. Si tu as un problème t'as qu'à demander, au moins on devrait avoir les mêmes horaires....

Terminally Unique

Here's a riddle... For AVRT to 'work', you need to recognize the Addictive Voice, which technically makes recognition a contingency. Does this then make recognition itself AV? This could lead to a headache.

soberlicious

LOL "riddle me this"...just like the Joker
I guess what I have always done is err on the side of caution. Anything that makes me feel "sniggly" (for a lack of a more precise term), I dismiss as AV. Whether it is or not matters not, as long as I don't drink. ever.
As far as heartache goes, I'm familiar with that too. I don't fear it any more than I do the beast. I can watch it come, sit with it for as long as it's there, and watch it go...if I so choose.

Terminally Unique

This is not surprising. AVRT is just the lore, or wisdom, of self-recovery, based on the collected experience of thousands of people who recovered on their own steam. AVRT is street-wise, old-school recovery, hearkening back to the bad old days before addiction treatment or recovery groups ever existed. People who quit their addictions generally do so along these lines, they just don't talk about it much. This is why soberlicious has caught on so quickly, for example. All we are doing here is actually talking about it — a lot.

soberlicious

Lol I see you said "headache" not "heartache". I let those pass too
The self recovered population is certainly harder to examine since they aren't usually at meetings. Do you know roughly how many people Trimpey interviewed? Is that how he compiled these strategies? Wonder where he found these folks...

RobbyRobot

The act of recognition of the AV is analogous to recognizing how a beam of light defines both itself and the edge of the darkness surrounding that light. Recognition is an awareness and not itself AV.

So methinks

Terminally Unique

I don't have numbers, but recall that Rational Recovery at one point fielded the largest "alternative" recovery group movement to date, and did have meetings. Trimpey already had decades of experience in community mental health prior to founding RR, and was a trained RET/REBT therapist. Not surprisingly, he initially based RR on RET/REBT, but since he had himself recovered on his own, the seeds of AVRT were present. This can be seen plainly from the 25-page chapter titled "Voices" in The Small Book.

I know that he spoke with people who had independently recovered, but he effectively learned to refine AVRT based on feedback from RR members and RR group coordinators. This refinement is actually documented in the Journal of Rational Recovery, and you literally see AVRT coming into shape over the course of about 10 years. He also received feedback from people who attended AVRT classes. Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction alone was three years in the making, with an intermediary edition titled The Final Fix.

Terminally Unique

How You Work "IT"
by Bill Benson

Never have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly and consistently practiced AVRT. Those who do not recover are people who are entirely capable but unwilling to make a personal commitment to permanent abstinence. They have the personal freedom to continue their dependency with the risk of suffering and death. They are not unfortunates, they are chemically dependent by choice! Their choice is made. The natural capability to grasp and develop a manner of living which allows freedom and longevity is theirs for the taking. Their chances of recovery are one-hundred percent guaranteed — right now!

If they decide they want a better life and are willing to never drink again, they will recognize an inner voice which balks. All of us balked at the idea of a Big Plan; if we hadn't, we wouldn't have been addicted! Some say, "It's too simple. How can it work?" It doesn't work. Nothing works. But anyone can quit right now for good! Some of us looked for an easier, less direct way, and thought we could depend on others or ask God to do what is ours to do. But we could not find a less direct way than to quit once and for all time.

With all the earnestness at our command, we challenged the fear of abstinence and found it was a needless fear. We stayed who we were from the start and held on to values that gave our lives meaning. Remember, we are dealing only with alcohol. It is neither cunning nor baffling nor powerful. It is an inanimate substance which sits on a shelf until it is taken and consumed.

We stood at a turning point and decided, "There is but one who can quit an addiction, and it is I." Let us find ourselves now! We asked for no protection against our innate desire for pleasure, and turned to planned, lifetime abstinence with complete abandon. We took no steps on the way to quitting, because any step is only an evasion of immediate responsibility.

A lifetime in the problem promises a lifetime of dependency but free will is yours and mine. Half-hearted commitments don't make it, but full measures avail us everything. We stand at the turning point and say, "I will never drink again!"

This is the book we read, The Final Fix by Jack Trimpey. Some have exclaimed, "What a Plan, I can't say never!" But that was only the Addictive Voice. We come to recognize that to doubt our ability to abstain is a favorite tactic of the Addictive Voice. Anyone can maintain perfect, permanent abstinence with AVRT, if that is what they decide to do.

Our description of addiction makes clear these pertinent facts:

1. We are not, nor were we ever, alcoholics, for no such creature exists. There is no barrier to abstinence except the lustful, animal side to human nature. We do not have a disease, nor do any of us need treatment or help to quit.
   
   
2. When sober, we are competent human beings who can manage our lives quite well.
   
   
3. God, however we may understand Him, could not object that someone would refuse alcohol or drugs without paying Him tribute.

Being convinced that we have had our last drink or our final fix, we are completely recovered and are free to return to normal lives! We hope for better lives and certain fulfillments, but we do not make those hopes a condition of our enduring commitment to abstinence from alcohol and drugs.


(Copyright © Journal of Rational Recovery, Volume 8, Issue 4, 1996 — all rights reserved.)