big plan
 

Hey. Someone help me out with a quickie explanation of the "BIG PLAN". I dont have one yet. -at least not written down. What does it need to include?:herewego

It's simple. Are you prepared to say with conviction "I will never drink/use again, and I will never change my mind, no matter what!".

Any thought, emotion or image that goes against that statement is the Beast speaking to you by using the addictive voice. Once you make the Big Plan, your job is to recognize the addictive voice coming from the AV. Remember, you don't fight against your AV, you don't attempt to drown it out or struggle to stop it. You simply recognize it as powerless and unable to make you drink. It will settle down once recognized.

Have you read through the AVRT crash course on the Rational Recover website? If not, I strongly suggest you do so before committing to your Big Plan.

Cheers.

Straight from the RR website:

The Big Plan: A principled commitment to lifetime abstinence from alcohol and other pleasure producing drugs, with no allowance for relapses, i.e., “I will never drink/use again.”

Usually appended with "and I will not change my mind".

ETA: I'd suggest you read every word on the RR website.

An AVRT 'Big Plan' has been called 'The Final Decision' which I think is a more descriptive way to phrase it. It describes a personal, solemn and fully considered vow to never use alcohol again. It is a covenant between you and your future. My signature file has a version.

At first, for my Big Plan, I said 'I will never now drink', as I was working on mindfulness and being present in this moment. Now, I say 'I will never drink again, and I will never change my mind'. So Big Plans can change in the words you choose to describe them, but the meaning is the same.

To make mine, I first got rid of any idea that having a drink would ever be the right thing for me to do. I did a cost benefit analysis by making lists of reasons to drink, reasons not to do it, reasons to be sober, and reasons to ever drink again. I listed things I could only ever do or be if I never drank again. I tried to imagine every emotion or feeling I might have and chose to be sober in advance of these. Then I looked forward with acceptance and understanding of my present reality, and realized that I could drink or have a life worth living, but I could not have both. Finally, I wrapped all of this in a moral framework by considering how wrong I could see drinking again to be. I mixed taking another drink with betrayal, fraud, theft, and even murder - all of these things would or could come to pass as a direct result of me taking a drink.

As you can see, it is a simple declaration, but it needs plenty of thought and acceptance.

So, Leviathan, are you ready to make your plan about using alcohol, your Big Plan?

oh yeah. ready. i just didnt know how to word it. whether it needed to be original or something.

the lit. that i purchased was "Rational Steps to Quitting Alcohol". by A.Ellis and E.Velten. i believe it is RR, but maybe not so much AVRT. -which so far has been enough. i have just been focusing on my thought process, and decision making. i rarely crave (thank higher power as you understand it here.) when i do "miss" it it is usually an impulse to escape.

i always look back at these instances to appreciate how much better things turned out without excessively medicating.

It's not a publication from Rational Recover; although, it sounds interesting. The Rational Recovery book that outlines AVRT and is usually discussed here is Rational Recovery; the New Cure for Substance Addiction by Jack Trimpey

alright. will check out. thankyou. back with big plan soon.

Leviathan, have you read the AVRT crash course at the Rational Recover website? I ask, because some of your comments suggest you may not really understand the Addictive Voice Recognition Technique. For example, your comment that the Albert Ellis book may be a part of Rational Recovery leads me to believe you may not have visited the Rational Recover website and taken the AVRT crash course. Your question about how to make a Big Plan was another indication that you may not understand what AVRT is and isn't.

If you Google "Rational Recovery", the first link is the RR website, and the link for the crash course is on the right hand side of the first page.

"I don't drink" is mine-- Usually followed by the assertion "That experiment is over". So far, this has worked for me.

That's a dandy one, Reisingwood1. I know one poster here who says 'That question has been asked and answered'. We also must remember that an important part of any Big Plan is our absolute and profound confidence in it. There can be no 'so far, so good' to AVRT. Onward!

Freshstart, so lovely of you to actually go to the trouble of outlining what you actually did in order to demonstrate to leviathan what it is and how to apply it.:thanks