I'm a beer drinker. I. Love. It. I even make my own, and to be honest, it's awesome. What's really great about making your own beer is that you get to make the very kind of beer you like to drink. For me, it's dark, malty, and strong. I also make my own hard cider which is also excellent and VERY strong.

So, tonight I took my first pill and popped one a bottle of homebrew. Usually, with each sip of my first beer, I can feel that warm glow spreading through my body. Sheer heaven. I've had a few beers now and to be honest, it's missing something. I mean, I can feel the alcohol, I can feel the depressive effects, but that warm glow is totally absent. That feeling of "ooooh, I'm definitely going to want another of those" is just not there. I will probably drink some more, but more out of habit than anything. I could stop right now, with half a beer in my glass, and not have any problem with that. That's a strange feeling.

I know there's the whole, "honeymoon period" thing, so we'll see how this goes, but I am for once hopeful.

You have been very fortunate to be able to sense so quickly the very thing that Nal does...it blocks the parts of our brain that gives us that "oooooh" experience and desire to have more. You will find that you'll still be able to get a pretty decent buzz after a few beer, but the reinforcement/interest/desire to press the REPEAT button will be significantly impaired (pardon the pun!). But your experience today is a sure sign that the Nal is doing its thing for you....and that YES, you can enjoy and grasp onto that glimmer of hope that is suddenly shining through.

We will look forward to seeing your progress. Spend some time looking over the other experiences of those here (Cured List & Weekly Progress) and you'll see that you are on the right road....the one that could very well give you total freedom from the beast.

Good luck!

Yep, that is the "honeymoon effect." It is a fleeting effect though. In a week or so, you will be wanting those additional drinks again.

I don't know that anyone has explained exactly what the honeymoon effect is and why it only lasts a week or so, but you're definitely in it.

Q

Good point Q! I'm curious to know more about the honeymoon effect as well. I'm going to take a wild guess at it though, based on own studies and experience...that given the nature of our brain...once a new drug of any kind is introduced, the brain is caught off guard, boxing gloves off. However, once the brain "realizes" (we are talking about unconscious autonomic activities here) that there is a new player on the block which suddenly disrupts the way things were -- the equilibrium or previous brain balance chemistry -- which takes a few days to a week or so -- that the brain puts on the gloves and leaps into action in order to bring BACK the original balance, and is very effective at doing so!

So, when we first start taking the Nal, our brain is caught off-guard and the drug suddenly rules the roost, but just for a week or so. Then, in short order, the autonomic brain takes up the defensive and effectively catches up to and corrals the rogue, loose chickens --the brain chemicals--back to where it thinks they should be. Continuing to take the Nal, however, keeps letting the dam chickens out, and slowly but surely the roost (our brain) becomes fenceless and defenceless against the drug (our beloved medication, Nal) which,thankfully, has its way...and in time we become FREE!

There you go, that's my take on it. Thanks for stimulating my thought process to speculate! I hope it's accurate. At the very least, its probably a reasonable analogy.

KOKO Samm and everybody!