I thought I'd jump in here as will with my story.

I'm a 38 year old engineer and business owner. I didn't start drinking alcohol at all until I was in my early 30's. My initial consumption pattern was purely social. In fact, I rarely even drank alcohol at home then. Throw in a very rough divorce and some rocky business conditions and I began to lean on alcohol in a major was as a crutch. However, I really didn't start having problems with alcohol until the last year and a half or so.

Over the last 6-mons to a year I'd taken to drinking heavily 3-4 days a week, meaning half of my week was shot. If I didn't own my own business, I would have surely been fired by now. While I didn't lose my job, my business was suffering from my inability to productively work about 1/2 the time.

My sweet wife had been trying for months to gently push me to get help. In fact, it was she who in-directly introduced me to The Sinclair Method. She emailed me an article about anti-craving medications and alcohol consumption. The article itself did not mention The Sinclair method, but it got me to searching the internet for more information. One thing lead to another and I found myself at the MYO site reading a post put up by SpringerRider. I was sold.

I grabbed a copy of Dr. Eskapa's book and initially ordered Naltrexone from River Pharmacy because I was nervous about any negative comments getting on my medical record. My wife was very uncomfortable with me taking medication without seeing my Dr and the Nal from River was going to take weeks to show up, so decided to make an appointment with my PCP.

Initially, my PCP wouldn't prescribe Nal for me as he'd never prescribed it before and felt uncomfortable. He said he'd research it and get back to me. I left the appointment really bummed because I was looking forward to starting Sinclair. T0 my surprise, my PCP called me about 3-4 hours after the appointment and said he'd approved my prescription for Nal. This was nearly 2 weeks ago.

I am feeling very good and am excited to see where Sinclair takes me.

Good story. You are well on your way. In the future, others will stand on our stories to start their own. Thanks for contributing yours.

Yes Q, thank you for sharing. Reading others' stories is a great encouragement, and I cannot wait until all of us are down to abstinence or safe levels of drinking. Just THINK how many people coming on board will be inspired to hope by that! (And isn't that what this is all about?) They will be able to read about our own stories, and identify with them, and know that if we did it, they can too!

I mentioned this once before, but it seems so apparent on this thread: for the most part, people who become addicted to alcohol seem to possess above average skill sets and abilities. The alcoholics I know are more creative, vivacious, intelligent, compassionate, sensitive, adaptable. . .than the general public. Just look at our stories here! When I tried to make AA work for me, it was hard getting past all those really wonderful people in 'the rooms' claiming to be more selfish, self-centered, and less spiritual than non-drinkers. From my perspective, this was just not TRUE. Yet each person who wanted to really commit to the program and become a successful 'recovering alcoholic' had to adopt this point of view, and declare it. It seemed you had to admit to being lower than a worm's belly in order to start recovery, and become human again. I never felt like a worm's belly. . .but only like a fairly decent person who had come into the grips of something I couldn't control. In my gut, I always KNEW that alcohol addiction was/is a chemical/biological condition, and not due to an intrinsic character or moral defect.

Just the fact that N101CS and Lena took the time and effort to start this MB - purely for the sake of helping others suffering with this problem - says a lot. Everyone on this Board is still drinking - and yet, everyone also is taking the time to share their stories and offer encouragement. This is not the work of selfish, self-centered people, but rather springs out of a passionate desire to help others out of the quagmire of alcohol addiction.

My heartfelt thanks to all of you who have taken the time to work this Message Board.

I was watching a show about the brain a month ago and they had a juggler doing demonstrations and then they would perform a brain scan and show the activity. At one point it was said that people who learn to juggle increase their brain size by 3%. They did not mean that smarter people learn to juggle. He emphasized that the act of learning to juggle makes you smarter just as lifting weights makes you stronger. He went on to explain the complexity to manage moving objects in space.
Now why should alcohol addicts NOT develop stronger brains. Haven’t we been juggling extremely complicated lives? Ducky, dodging, avoiding DUI’s, lying, sneaking in late, etc., etc. is a pretty good work out and many of us have done it for a good part of our lives. That which didn’t kill us(but should have) made us stronger.

I used to point out that claiming to be the humblest person in the room is probably not the best example of humility.
Yes, that is what always drove me out of those rooms (and the fact that I don't smoke). Self-deprecation and ritualizing just wasn't necessary for me. Also the "do it my way or the highway" did not go well. Don't get me wrong. The 12 step program has it merits but there is an inherent flaw that we are exposing here.
AA builds on the premise that we are a flawed people, psychologically, emotionally and spiritually. We are Santa's broken toys. Yet it is turning out that we simply have a proclivity to conditioning via alcohol and that that process is proven to be reversible, with minimal strain.

I have many friends that I made in AA. Since they all have many years of sustained sobriety, I will use one of their mottos and "live and let live".

Thank you SpringerRider and Goin4More for your kind words.

I am always very encouraged when I visit this forum and feel a connection with those in this group. Day by day we are all chipping away at our addiction and day be day we are getting better. This is exciting. I'm feeling better now than I've felt in months.

Goin4More, I agree with you that our group is composed of skilled and talented people. However, I do not feel this is related to the type of people who become addicted to alcohol. Alcohol addiction really is very unbiased and impacts without prejudice.

I believe what you are seeing here is a function of how new The Sinclair Method is and the fact that it takes some searching on the internet to find it. In time, this will change.

Good point, Q. Alcohol addiction may not be biased, but I'm not basing my P.O.V. on just this group. My subjective opinion has long been that alcoholics, in general, have more innate intelligence and creativity than the general public. That doesn't mean that every single alcohol addicted person is a genius, by any means. But Dr. Sinclair noted that the rats with addictive personalities also had stronger, more sensitive personalities, on the whole.

I've known a few not-so-bright drunks in my day, as well. (My ex-husband, for example )

I've also known stronger, more sensitive alcoholic rats in my day (e.g. MY ex-husband) --
Lena
--Traveling; will catch up but all posts are great to read and couldn't resist respondint to this one

Q, you have to tell us the story behind that avatar! I am probably the only one who is so dumb but is that your real picture?

No, this is not my real picture. I'm a bit of a Star Trek junkie (i.e., a Trekkie). Q is a unique Star Trek character:

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/galle ... pestry.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(Star_Trek)

LOL- I knew who it was because my BF is a 'trekkie'.

It is something I don't generally reveal to others

(I think he actually has a Trekker's suit somewhere).