I've been reluctant to say this--it's a pretty bold statement--but I think it's unavoidable now. I took my nal a few hours before tonight's NYE party because I was expecting to have a drink with someone in the early evening. Those plans fell through, though, and I just found myself trying to talk myself INTO having a glass of the wine my roommate opened last night. If I didn't want to maintain a strong connection between alcohol and lack of reinforcement, I'd have no interest in that bottle whatsoever. As it is I will finish this half glass (it's pretty good wine, too), then have the traditional glass or two of champagne at midnight and call it done. I'll be among the same friends as every year, just not as a sorry drunken mess this time.

I counted my drinks when I was in a topiramate clinical trial a couple of years ago, and I was usually in the fifties at my peak. (I'm normally poor at tabulating, but I had between ten and twenty during my Christmas vacation, and that seems about my new normal.) I'm thanking my lucky stars that I went on to try TSM after the trial didn't help me (it turned out I was in the placebo group)--I just wish I had done it years ago. I might have preserved a couple of now-destroyed friendships, a promising relationship, and a ton of money. But there's no changing the past, and this is a good time to look ahead anyway. Happy New Year, everybody.

That's fantastic! I'm so glad to hear that. I do love a good success story.

Congratz!