Hello Friends,

I've been doing a lot of research on TSM, and I am anxious to start my journey to controlled drinking, and maybe even quitting completely. I'm going to make a Dr. appt. next week, and hopefully he'll prescribe me Naltrexone. ( if not, i'll find another Dr. who will.) I've been drinking since my late teens, I'm 46 now. The last 8 years or so, I drink anywhere from 12 to 24 beers a night. (3.2bac). I go to work everyday, and function normally, but I'm am sick of it. I spend too much time and money on beer. I want to regain my life, and enjoy it with my wife and family, and our new grandson. As soon as I get the NAL, I'll post more. I have anxiety issues, have for years, and some times I take .25 mg of Xanax (dr prescribed) to calm down if I have a meeting, or some class to go to at work. will the NAL block the effects of Xanax? does anyone know?
I'm glad I found this forum, and look forward to getting started, and also hopefully make some new friends on here. I live in Oklahoma City, OK btw. Billy

Hi Billy, welcome to the forum!

I hope you can find a doctor that's willing to help you, if not let us know and we might be able to find some leads for you. Sometimes a younger Nurse Practitioner will be more open to this sort of thing. Given what you're saying, it seems you're good and ready and I think you'll do well with it. If you can't turn up anything, you can order Naltrexone from overseas, but it's rather more expensive that way. If you can get a local doc to prescribe it, use GoodRx.com to find out which pharmacies in your area accept GoodRx coupons. I got mine for $40 for 30 pills using the coupon.

Welcome again and shoot us any questions you may have while you're getting your source of Nal lined up!

Hallo Billy and welcome. I am happy that you have found TSM and naltrexone - I so understand the functioning alcoholic thing - and yes it gets really old! Nal does work - but it can take a lot longer than the book says - just take it every time an hour (at least) before you drink and drink pretty much as usual.

I do not know about Xanax and nal - I do know that it blocks opiates so if Xanax is an opiate then - well, I don't know - hopefully someone else will chime in for you.

When you see your doc - you can play it two ways - you can either tell him about TSM and show him the pages in the back pertaining to medical folk, or you can lie (I did not say that) and tell him that yes you will abstain when you take the nal. A doctor cannot give you Nal and tell you to go forth and drink. It goes against everything they stand for. I was lucky with my doctor - I told him about how nal worked - he said he would give it to me and didn't say anything else.

Let us know how things go for you ....

Hugs, Maggie

Thanks Joesixpack. HaHa I just realized I said "3.2bac" I meant 3.2%al/vol. Anyway, I drink way too much!! Again, I'm very excited to get started, and I'll definitely let you know if I get the NAL script next week. I've also started reading the "The Cure for Alcoholism". I'll keep in touch.

Cross post Billy .....

I'm sorry Maggie, but what does "cross post" mean?

Oh - it just means that we both posted at the same time ..... so you probably didn't see my post to you!

ok Maggie. I got your post. thank you. I am definitely going to keep you posted. I'm ready to roll! Just discussed it with my wife. I'll holler soon.

Hi, Billy and welcome to the board. Unfortunately, Benzodiazapenes like Xanax are not compatible with TSM. I had been taking Diazapam for years and ultimately decided conquering alcoholism was far more important to me. As such I weened myself off them over the course of three weeks.

"The benzodiazepines will not help you with the Sinclair Method - they will hamper, slow, and weaken your de-addiction or extinction progress. Avoid them if at all possible. There is both scientific research to support this and also clinical cases ...." -Dr. Eskapa

Well wishes and keep us posted.

Cool, thanks for bringing that up, Bardo. That totally slipped my mind.

Billy, one thing to tuck away in the back of your mind, that I only found out recently is that venlafaxine (Effexor) can wipe out the benefits of Naltrexone too.