Hey Sailorbox,

Did you read Dr. Eskapa's book: The Cure for Alcoholism: The Medically Proven Way to Eliminate Alcohol Addiction ? It answers a lot of your questions. There is an updated version, Pub. Date, Oct. 23, 2012. If you are considering Nal and TSM, this is a "must read".

I got my Nal locally by going to the site: goodrx.com

You enter your zip code and the medication you want, and it provides a number of local pharmacies. I got mine at my local CVS -30 tablets (50 mg) for $40.02. I got a prescription easily by telling my doc I wanted to reduce my alcohol intake and this was proven to help with cravings. Mentioned the NIAAA(website below.). I got it the same day. Generic. Label says: manufactured for Accord Healthcare by Intas Pharmaceuticals. India.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has informative articles about using Naltrexone. http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/

Where are you going in Italy?!?

-FA

Hi Fresh Air, first I have ordered the book and hopefully will arrive today or in a day or two more. The prescription is my dilemma , as a vet i receive health care from the VA and just did not wish to approach them with this, my primary care doc is a cynical sort. Also they know that i am sober as I have annual physicals and blood tests. As for Italy, I used to live in Ravena, on the Adriatic coast below Venice. My wife wishes to vist the Tuscany region and Venice and I want to visit the Amalfi Coast. While in Tuscany i would like to visit a winery thus my desire to tamper with my sobriety. I actually have zero cravings for anything, I am sober without outside help or medication but I know my history and Nal just might be the answer to allow me to enjoy the same things my wife will experience on the trip. Crazy but true.

Hi, can anyone tell me the shelf life of Naltima from Alldaychemist. I would not like to buy a supply that might expire or lose their potency before using them. Thanks.

So I just received my book, The Cure for Alcoholism and right off the bat I have a question. Everyone on this forum speaks of Naltrexone and never of Nalmefene which is talked about alongside Naltrexone in the very beginning of the book. I looked it up and it seems to be more or less the same type of drug but has anyone tried it? And any discussions about it?

I now have another question of the forum. As I read the postings of many individual progress reports of people that either decided to drink again after abstinence or people that are still drinking I sometimes think that some, not all, but some people seem to have a desire to push Naltrex to far. What I mean is one case in particular is if they are successful with taking Nal and having a few drinks and stopping then the next time they feel compelled to push it farther and drink more and more often even if they are not having that alcoholic craving. Am I wrong or reading too much in their progress reports.

As I said in my opening, after many years of sobriety I actually have no urge to drink, don't really want anythbing to drink except sometimes I might be hot and sweaty and think that a cold beer would be good. But not a craving and I don't follow through. I don't know if other addicts feel this way or if abstinence is a hard road for them to follow. My real desire now that I have completely altered my lifestyle from my drinking past, is to be able to have a glass of wine with my Thanksgiving turkey or a drink if someone invites my wife and I over or something along those lines. I now do not know ANY hard core drinkers, none so it is unlikely that I will meet them unless I go seek them out in a bar somewhere.

I ordered 30 Naltima today from Allday and will have them on hand if and when I finally make some decision to try them out. I also received my book today, The Cure for Alcoholism, and have read about half of that so I will finish that and do a lot more research before i come to some conclusion but so far all that I read seems mostly positive if one has patience. Comments?

My practice all along has been 50mg of NAL any time I anticipate drinking, none otherwise. In fact, there have been one or two occasions when I took a NAL, got distracted and didn't drink as planned, but I made a point of having one drink before bedtime just to give the NAL something to work on. Don't know that that's absolutely necessary, but it's what I do.

I use one standard shot of 80-proof liquor, 1.5 oz, as a unit, and the ethanol equivalent in wine (one 5 oz glass) or beer (one 12 oz can or the equivalent). I read something yesterday that says the international definition of a unit is 1.0 oz of liquor, go figure. Of course there are slight variations in the strength of beers, and wines, and liquors that would affect the units, but I don't get too hung up about it, one standard drink is a unit for me. Since a typical sesskion is 2-3 drinks, the difference isn't that big a deal. I notice our friends in the UK speak in pints, which is 1.33 units by my definition, maybe a bit more if the beer/ale/guiness/whatever is stronger than Budweiser. If you go ahead with your Italy experiment I'd say one glass is a unit. (Unless it's one of the 1/4 liter glasses that are common in Germany; don't know if that's true in Italy. One of those would approximate 8 oz or 1.5 units.)

Writing all that reminds me to laugh at myself for the games I played in the bad old days, drinking fortified wines or the 100-proof stuff to get to where I wanted to be a little quicker. Eventually, of course, life got simpler -- a three-liter jug of the cheapest white wine I could find would do just fine, all I had to do was drink enough of it, fast enough, and I didn't have to do all that "proof mathematics" in my head..

I posted some new stuff on my long-neglected progress thread, if you might be interested.

Ellpee,

Thanks for all of the explanations. I will refer back to it in the future. So if you don't mind, I would like to ask you this question about my situation that i have asked but feel you might have some insight that I need to hear. I have not had alcolhol of any type in over 9 years, don't really want any but still resent to some degree the fact that I do not trust myself to drink even a glass of wine for Thanksgiving or at any other occasion, again I have not so much missed it as just feel a bit of resentment but not a great deal and don't dwell on it although you would think that I have because I am on this forum asking questions. I only just learned of Naltrexone so it opened up a whole new can of curiousity for me to explore regarding the possibility of drinking "normal" a few times a yearj, something that I have not considered at all during my sobriety, I just accepted that I had to abstain completely. But here I am, and if do go forward it will be to take 25mg. of Nal to test its effect on me, then again 25 mg. and if i do not get sick from it then I will have an idea that if and when I make the decision I will take a 50 mg. and maybe have that first glass of wine. Everything I read tells me that taking Nal while drinking teaches your brain the extinction effect but I wonder if I am sober if taking Nal before that first drink in 9 years will actually have the same effect on me since my brain will have no experience from the Nal. You were sober when you started so what is your opinion or advice or warning on this approach. Sorry for such a long winded post but would like to be sure there is nothing left out of my current situation. Please give me your thoughts.

Sailorbox, I don't know if you've "chatted" w/ Curiousone yet, but I think I found the post I was thinking about that explained (to me) the benefits of starting TSM after being sober for 3 years. Here is the link, and if it doesn't take you to the right comment, it was Sept. 20th on my weekly progress thread.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2649&p=39471&sid=e53478fb6269b8b5288a8d5e47321031#p39471

Seems to me I also read Curiousone write there were a # of benefits to starting TSM after sobriety: she no longer had to deal w/ Alcohol Deprivation Effect, she was no longer physically addicted, and she had (in those 3 years) learned to handle emotions and situations w/out having alcohol to rely on, and also (I think) had developed other interests to fill in that former "drinking time". Those all sound like great advantages to me, those explanations. So you could be similarly poised for success...

Chrissie, that makes a lot of sense because I have zero ADE and don't remember if I even had any this time when I became sober. It actually happened by accident, I was too sick to drink or eat anything for several days and I just detoxed over that time and by the time I was well I had lost the daily craving so I just never started drinking again. I also got married and set sights on other things i needed to do like moving back to the USA after being gone for almost 20 years. So I was busy.

Since last posting with you I have received the book and read it and watched the videos that Claudia Christian made and feel really good that this is a factual cure to a monumental problem and the approach makes sense. Of course it takes a genius to have figured out all of the mechanics of the brains reactions to stimuli but in the end even I can understand the explanation of what Nal does to the brain and why it cures us.

I ordered the Nal from Allday and it should come whenever it does and once i have the pills in hand then I will make some decision on trying it out. Too bad I don't have them now as I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and my wife will be able to enjoy a nice glass of wine with hers while I drink iced tea. I am not prepared to go near a glass yet without following this program to the letter.

So thanks for taking the time that you have to give me the information that i have needed to help me find my way thru this forum and study the entire subject of TSM from an analytical viewpoint. I admit I have my concerns about even attempting this but on the other hand I would enjoy a glass of wine with Christmas dinner when that comes. By then I will have the pills, but whatever I decide I am not looking to push this thing very hard and try to test its limits, I just do not have the desire to even remotely drink very much, just a little when I want, like Claudia Christian explained.

Reply at will and keep me posted on your thoughts.

Oh yes, I think the facts are definitely there, w/ the various studies, etc. Despite the hard evidence and data, TSM is SO contrary to everything we've ever been taught about alcohol problems and the ONLY way to deal with it (complete abstinence) that it just seems "too good to be true". I know I learned about it a full year before I finally admitted to myself I couldn't see any downside to it, and gave it a 'go", thank goodness. I think the older a person is, & hence the longer they've been subjected to the long-held ideas about alcohol addiction, the harder it is to be open minded about TSM. I see younger people come here and they seem more nonchalant to the idea it might be real and okay!

Sailorbox, here is another thread I really love, about how Half Glass discovered there was no "dark secret" driving her drinking, no big "moral defect"...it was simply a physical problem and TSM deals w/ that, effectively and non-judgmentally. Our culture has made drinking problems such a big moral issue and so shameful. It's simply that some of us were born w/ a higher susceptibility to the effects of alcohol and circumstances combined to make it a problem for some of us.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2145&p=39793&sid=c84050c9380c80c12173f00f82c789eb#p39793

I think your vision of Christmas is very realistic, and you'll be ready when the time comes. I'm visiting family for Thanksgiving and it is such a far cry from many previous holidays. I had 2 beers tonight, and though they tasted interesting and were mildly pleasant, the diet root beer I'm having now is just as good! Who knows where I will be by NEXT TG???