How to use SAVE to beat urges and cravings

[soloadmin]

SAVE (Stopping Addictive Voice Enticements) is a powerful technique derived from Jack Trimpey's Addictive Voice Recognition Technique (AVRT). At its core, SAVE represents a paradigm shift in how we understand and approach addiction recovery by focusing on the internal dialogue that perpetuates addictive behaviors.

The Dual Mind Concept

The foundation of SAVE is the recognition that there exists a fundamental split in the mind of someone struggling with addiction:

1. The Conscious Mind: This is the part of you that genuinely desires sobriety, wellness, and freedom from addiction. It aligns with your authentic self-interest and long-term goals.
   
2. The Subconscious Addictive Voice: This is the part that does not share your desire for sobriety. It operates beneath your conscious awareness, continually generating thoughts, feelings, and rationalizations designed to lead you back to your addictive substance or behavior.
   

Identifying the Addictive Voice

The addictive voice is remarkably deceptive and can manifest in countless ways:

• Direct Enticements: "Just one won't hurt." "You've had a hard day, you deserve this."
  
• False Logic: "You've been sober for two weeks; clearly you've got this under control now."
  
• Emotional Manipulation: "You'll never feel happy/relaxed/confident without this."
  
• Self-Pity: "Your situation is uniquely difficult; others don't understand why you need this."
  
• Bargaining: "Let's set up a controlled schedule for using."
  
• Identity Claims: "This is just who you are." "You've always been this way."
  
• Minimization: "Your problem isn't really that bad compared to others."
  
• Future-Focused Excuses: "You can quit tomorrow/next week/after this event."
  

The key insight of SAVE is that ANY thought, feeling, or rationale that leads toward engaging with your addiction, no matter how reasonable it may seem, is the addictive voice at work.

Practicing SAVE: The Process

1. Recognition
Train yourself to quickly identify when the addictive voice is speaking. This requires developing heightened awareness of your thought patterns and emotional states. Ask yourself: "Does this thought lead me toward or away from my addiction?"

2. Labeling
Once recognized, explicitly label the thought as your addictive voice, not your authentic self. You might think or say: "That's not me, that's my addictive voice talking."

3. Disputation
Actively challenge and dispute the voice. Don't negotiate or reason with it—firmly reject it. Remember that the addictive voice has no power except what you give it.

4. Affirmation
Reinforce your commitment to abstinence and wellness. Remind yourself of your Big Vow (complete abstinence) and your reasons for choosing recovery.

5. Persistence
Continue this process until the urge passes. With practice, the duration and intensity of cravings typically diminish over time.

Key Principles of SAVE

Absolute Separation
Maintain a clear distinction between yourself and your addictive voice. The addictive voice is not you—it's a residual neurological pattern that contradicts your true desires.

No Compromise
The SAVE technique rejects moderation approaches. Any compromise with the addictive voice represents a victory for it, not for you.

Present Tense Commitment
SAVE emphasizes making recovery decisions in the present moment, not promising future sobriety. The focus is always on the current choice not to engage with your addiction.

Self-Recovery
SAVE empowers individuals to take full responsibility for their recovery, without dependency on external support systems, though these can be helpful supplements to the technique.

Common Challenges and Solutions

Challenge: "How do I know if it's my addictive voice or a reasonable thought?"
Solution: Any thought that leads toward your addiction, regardless of how reasonable it seems, is the addictive voice.

Challenge: "Sometimes the voice is so convincing."
Solution: Recognize that the addictive voice will use your intelligence against you. The more convincing the argument, the more important it is to recognize and dispute it.

Challenge: "The cravings are too intense."
Solution: Remember that cravings always pass, whether you give in to them or not. By not giving in, you weaken future cravings.

Challenge: "I feel deprived when I don't give in."
Solution: Reframe your thinking: you're not depriving yourself of something good; you're freeing yourself from something harmful.

Benefits of Mastering SAVE

• Empowerment: Taking control rather than feeling at the mercy of your addiction
  
• Clarity: Distinguishing between your authentic desires and addictive impulses
  
• Confidence: Building trust in your ability to maintain recovery
  
• Peace: Reducing the internal conflict that characterizes addiction
  
• Freedom: Living without the burden of addiction's constraints
  

Practical Applications in Daily Life

Morning Preparation
Start each day by acknowledging that your addictive voice may present itself and reaffirming your commitment to recognize and dispute it.

High-Risk Situations
Before entering situations that might trigger cravings, mentally rehearse identifying and disputing potential addictive voice messages.

Recovery Journal
Document instances when you recognized your addictive voice and how you responded. This builds awareness of patterns and strategies that work for you.

Environmental Management
While SAVE focuses on internal processes, it's still beneficial to manage your environment to reduce unnecessary exposure to triggers, especially in early recovery.

Conclusion: The SAVE technique offers a powerful framework for understanding and overcoming addiction. By recognizing that the thoughts promoting addictive behavior come from a distinct, separable part of your mind—not your authentic self—you gain the power to dispute these thoughts and maintain your commitment to recovery.
Remember that mastering SAVE is a skill that improves with practice. Each time you successfully identify and dispute your addictive voice, you strengthen your recovery muscles and weaken the grip of addiction on your life.
The path to lasting freedom lies in recognizing that you are not your addiction, nor are you the voice that promotes it. You are the conscious being who chooses wellness, and with SAVE, you have a powerful tool to ensure that choice prevails.

[soloadmin]

I can tell you personally that this is powerful. I once achieved a year of sobriety using this technique and nothing else - and only relapsed because I failed to stay focused on this process.

The other steps and tools of SoberLogic offer a wide array of defenses against addictive behavior, but the SAVE technique is so powerful that some people have fully recovered using it alone.