UPDATE – CURED – 6 MONTH CHECK-IN
Long overdue for an update here and nothing but good news! Even if this worked during my early stages of investigation I was most skeptical of the declaration of being ‘cured’. It seemed to carry too much weight. And that it required lifetime pill ingestion … Now that I’m here I’m indeed cured. I’ve been having (1) drink approx. every (30) days for the past four months. I have cultivated true indifference to this substance that gave me so much trouble. I can take it or leave it. Bottles gather dust and beer gets pushed to the back of the fridge. Unthinkable! Psychologically I feel phenomenal. I can’t remember ever feeling so good. So normal. And I credit this partially too to seeing a psychiatrist and reevaluating some things I had been prescribed thus eliminating them. I’m glad I incorporated a psychiatrist/doctor who does talk therapy (hard to find these days or financially exclusive) into this process. I highly recommend it. It proved to be the icing on cake.
While I had reported no buzz I feel compelled to clarify that a scotch for instance will hit me just a bit, just enough. It’s actually pretty cool. There’s still pleasure left. I’m really not a huge fan of drinking on Naltrexone, which others have reported. But I’m still figuring out where I entirely stand in that regard. As I have been feeling virtually no inclination but for a novel glass of something once a month, the distance between doses is a true reintroduction of Naltrexone into my system each time. I didn’t feel I had many side effects at launch time and I’m not sure I’d call it that now. What’s happening is if I’m eating it disturbs my appetite some. It either simply kills it where I pick at things and end up with a doggie bag or in one instance now queered me on chicken wings for about a month. I’d just think about wings, associate them with this sort of ‘off’ feeling in my abdominal area and therein cringe a little. It’s as if I have accidentally gone through some aversion therapy. It happened briefly with something else too that now escapes me. All in all it’s not a big deal just peculiar. I’ve read of people reducing their NAL dose after extinction. I’m tempted to try it, but at the same time don’t want to risk ever experiencing cravings again. I just wonder if 25mg would feel more comfortable all around. We’ll see. Oh, and I've lost 20lbs...

AA. I feel like I made it out just in time. While I credit it with allowing me a support system, sober time and thus a clear mind where I was capable of approaching TSM I have some hostility to it. With TSM I also began reading a lot more on addiction. AA fosters no investigation. I’d argue it’s anti-intellectual. One of their catch phrases – your best thinking got you here- sums it up. Don’t question anything. The more I read the more I feel the nuts and bolts of it are hugely unhealthy. There’s plenty of resources on the matter and I’m not here to malign AA. It however validates my instincts from the moment I first walked in and promptly walked out six years ago - something’s off about this and these people are weird. Ha! I got weird. It sure would have been nice to know about TSM 6 years ago. I feel like I was done a huge disservice which is why I spend time trying to spread awareness of TSM.
Anyway, I’m free! So is my mother.
Thank you Dr. Sinclair, Dr. Espaka and Claudia Christian. You have changed/saved my life.
Progress thread:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4417