Sheesh R&A, please don't make me feel underdressed in my muumuu and clogs!

I'd be proud to carry Robby's ammo box!

love from Lenina

Also, maybe it's just residual AA teachings or my own concept of Karma or Something but I feel like I want to help other people. Nothing wrong with AA but it just wasn't the best fit for me. I wonder if I might have found sobriety and peace much sooner if I'd understood about the Beast and Addictive Voice.

If I can point someone in what feels like the right direction to them, I want to do so.

Love from Lenina

Welcome, Veggie! I've been logging in for over a month and have not even scratched the surface of learning about secular recovery methods. Checking these boards is a good start though - - a lot of nice folks here.

Indeed.

Nicely done, all, but especially RobbyRobot. It is most unusual, in my experience, for a self-proclaimed AA member to be able to explain AVRT so accurately. Appreciated and duly noted.

The idea of "cutting back" or moderating is, by definition, AV, since it supports the future use of alcohol/drugs, but Trimpey also commented on what he called the "Moderation Commitment Effect" in an old article, which was cited early on in the main AVRT discussion thread. For those interested, I recommend reading through the thread, and I second freshstart's suggestion to post any AVRT-specific questions on there.

Moderation Commitment Effect --

NA/AA is working for me.
I've just made the program my higher power. I can say step 2 (where I am) with conviction.

There may be parallels, but AVRT is "street-wise" recovery, a throwback to the old days before psychology ever existed as a discipline, and before psychologists ever got into the recovery game. The basis for AVRT is the self-recovered population itself, and Trimpey has referred to AVRT as something he "essentially picked up off the street".

AA hardly has a monopoly on the human desire to help others! Personally, I think that getting the word out that recovery is not one-size-fits all is extremely helpful. It would have helped me, had I known this early on.

Thanks, Dalek. And thanks out to R&A, and Lenina, OTT, and freshstart, too. Awesome. I'm beaming, lol. :)

Little did I know during my detox, born from my hate and fear of being drunk, when I spontaneously created into my psyche back in July of 1981 the idea "I will never ever drink again" that I was in fact making a Big Plan. :)


Yes, this explains my own early understanding of the basics of AVRT too. RR:TNC really details and clarifies my own understandings, and provides a way of shop-talking with AVRT. Awesome book by Jack Trimpey. :)

I have always separated my mind from my alcoholic addictive mind, ever since my detox, and so decades later, AVRT is absolutely at home with me. I'm almost finished the book. I like to meditate with its wealth of knowledge and techniques.

I have also discovered that AA and AVRT do not play well together philosophically, lol, and I've no good reason to synthesize either of them into one whole understanding. They work best when left to their own understandings. I still enjoy the results. :)