1. Are you sure he is taking the pill EVERY time?
2. Is he waiting the full hour before drinking EVERY time?

One month isnt very long, but people often think they can wiggle around the golden rule. You cant, and if you attempt it, addiction will be more entrenched.

Why are you on here and not him? Does he want to quit?

Those are both vital questions. Can you ask him to join us here? It's always harder to debug indirectly.

One month is still early days, though. It generally takes 3-12 months for a cure. We see progress before the actual cure, but it's not that unusual not to see much change the first month.

It's too early to decide that 50mg isn't enough. If this were month six instead of month one -- yeah, then it might be time to consider if he might be one of the minority who needs a higher dose.

1. Are you sure he is taking the pill EVERY time? YES
2. Is he waiting the full hour before drinking EVERY time? YES

Why are you on here and not him? Does he want to quit? My husband is the one who found the TSM. He has tried everything to quit. (I quit over 9 years ago cold turkey. It was incredibly difficult. I believe, at the time, my alcohol addiction was worse than his. Thankfully[color=#BF0000], 9 plus years later, I have zero cravings. Unfortunately, his alcohol problem has gotten worse, especially in the past several years.) He does want to quit. I got on the forum and asked the questions simply because I had the time to first. He is going to get on.
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Zoe

Zoe, welcome. First, I never quite get when people say they can't afford Naltrexone online, as it's quite cheap compared to alcohol. At alldaychemist.com you can get about 100 pills for about $100. If you can't scrounge up $100 for a three month supply (assuming no alcohol-free days), how can he afford to drink $50-$75 worth of booze a week? It reminds me of people I run into at the ER that can't (won't) pay $20 for blood pressure medicine, but can find $6 a day for cigarettes. Not trying to be snarky, but just challenging you a bit on that assumption.

Regarding the dosage, my take is that it would be rare indeed that 100mg of Naltrexone is going to do much more than 50mg. Remember, the drug just basically occupies certain receptors in your brain. Once those receptors are blocked, then all the "extra" Naltrexone just sort of floats away and gets metabolized. 50mg should cover 100% of the receptors for nearly 100% of people. Some report a subjective difference with 100mg, but I'd venture it could have something to do with possibly greater side-effects decreasing the urge to drink. That is, it doesn't affect the extinction per se.

Since your husband has a supportive partner, is there any way that you two can work together to MAKE SURE that his units start to go down? For example, decide ahead of time that he will just drink 6 drinks on weeknights. Have only six drinks available and stick to it as a couple. You can relate, I'm sure, to the anxiety he might be experiencing when he thinks of cutting down or even giving up (!) the alcohol, which to him at this point is often like telling someone to live without air (or, picture Gollum in Lord of the Rings as he says, "My precious" with that crazy look in his eye -- that's addiction). You know and I know that, despite the fears, nobody dies from not drinking, especially if they can taper down their intake slowly until they reach zero without withdrawals.

Is he recording the units? You really cant tell unless you write it down.

First, sorry for such a long post and such a lengthy introduction!

My wife, Zoe posted here recently. I had been so busy that I finally asked her to please post questions here even if I couldn't do so myself.

Thanks to everyone who posted helpful responses here already. I'm very grateful for everyone's advice. I won't share my entire story right now, but here's my situation:

I have been faithfully following the Sinclair Method for at least a month.

By that, I mean that I have taken 50 mg of naltrexone at least one hour before my first drink each and every day since April 6th, and accurately recorded each and every drink I've taken, each and every day --no exceptions.

Here is the weekly breakdown of my drinks since I started TSM so far:

Week 1: 52.75
Week 2: 58
Week 3: 60.5
Week 4: 71.5

I haven't had a chance to calculate the weekly number of drinks since week 4, because of being so busy with work and a whole host of other problems. But when I did finally have the chance to take an account of my consumption at week 4, I have to confess that it scared the hell out of me.

After all, if that was how many drinks I was consuming, while keeping track, since starting TSM, how many drinks was I consuming every week before that?

Originally I thought that I should just stick to "The Golden Rule" and allow the process of pharmacological extinction to work itself out, and not worry too much about it. But when I look at the numbers, I seriously have to wonder if my liver can wait for that to happen.

The big question in my mind is this: "Can I realistically combine naltrexone + drinking with willpower in order to accelerate the process of pharmacological extinction?"

I don't drive a car or do anything that might increase the risk of having an accident or encounter with "the law". So my physical safety isn't a big concern. My boss couldn't be happier with my performance. So I'm not in danger of losing my job. But that doesn't mean I won't end up in the emergency room or hospice because of liver failure or acute pancreatitis sometime soon.

I will definately stay the course and follow "the golden rule" from now on, no matter what -- no exceptions, no excuses. But honestly, I wish I could find a way speed up the process. My family and my friends are worried about me and I'm concerned about my health too.

I've been trying to quit "cold turkey" for over ten years now, of and on, without success. Now it looks like I've finally discovered a cure. I just don't want my discovery of The Cure to be too little or too late.

Best,
Ray

Hello Ray and welcome to the board.




In some ways, that's the information that you need to know to assess whether this is working. If you don't know your baseline, how can you know whether there's been an improvement? I do get what you're saying... that your numbers are high and have increased over the weeks since starting. However,from what I've read on here, it's not unusual for there to be an initial drop in units followed by an increase...which then leads to a steady reduction over time.

I'm not sure that you can speed the process up. My understanding is that once you've lost the urge/craving to drink then by all means use some willpower to cut back and only drink what you need to, but before then follow the instructions in the book and always remember the one hour golden rule.

Although your units haven't changed (or have even increased) have you noticed any difference in the taste of alcohol, craving levels, feelings towards it etc?

Hiya, Ray! Welcome aboard.



That's a good question, and we can't answer it for you.

It's possible that you're drinking more now than you were before. Some people start drinking more when they start TSM because they're no longer struggling to abstain or cut down -- they have "permission" to drink, so they do.



Short answer: no. For extinction via removing the reward, it just takes as long as it takes.

You could, in theory, speed the process by adding some aversion. Really, though, you don't seem to be having any insurmountable life problems, so can't you take the time to do it this way?

If you're drinking more because of the "I'm finally allowed to drink" factor, it could help to change your mindset back to having a goal of abstinence. With this paradigm, the nal is there if and when you drink anyway rather than because you plan to drink.

Come to think of it, that's pretty much how I approached it.



Is there any reason to think you have organ problems?

You could always see a doctor, of course. A liver panel wouldn't do you any harm.

I never saw a doctor because I didn't want anyone outside my family to know about my problem, but others have different experiences.

If you're really concerned about your internal organs, a doctor is the right person to ask. We're just a bunch of random people on a web site.

Welcome. Glad you made it on here. Regarding your liver, I'm picturing that you're relatively young since you have a wife named Zoe. Personally, I wouldn't let that factor into whether or not you continue TSM or not. It supposedly takes, on average, 10 drinks a day for about 20 years to completely blow out your liver irreversibly (advanced cirrhosis). Some people are more prone to liver failure (and pancreatitis, which usually won't kill you but becomes like a built-in Antabuse). Most people's liver can completely heal once they go down to safe levels for awhile.

"I wish I could find a way to speed up the process." You can...it's called not drinking as much. I know that sounds silly or offensive, but it's ultimately the truth. Naltrexone and TSM makes it so, so much easier to get down to or near zero, but it's still something YOU ultimately have to do. Picture people trying to quit cold turkey, and the thought of, "I can never drink again." How many of them would have loved to still be able to drink and slowly decrease their intake to zero? Answer: 100%.

When I started, I thought it nearly impossible to go a night off without alcohol, or to have just "a beer or two." I had tried and then, at 5:00, would surrender to it. Like you, I really wanted to quit, though. Naltrexone gave me the extra oomph to start activating my will power. Unless you're one of the lucky ones whereby (a) you have the will power to take Naltrexone per the golden rule every time, and (b) are rendered unable to drink much after taking Naltrexone, then you're going to have it a little bit harder than some.

You've been on it a month, so you should be able to start cutting down pretty significantly. You have to try out your new wings, though. Geez, you have a supportive wife in all this, so that makes it that much easier.

Remember, you're in control of the drinking, it's not in control of you. It wants to be, and tells you it is, but it isn't.