I am so grateful to tsm and naltrexone, and especially to Claudia for having the courage to "come out" with the story of her struggles with alcohol. She has saved/helped more lives than maybe she knows
April 9th of 2016 was my first drink with nal and fortunately I was a classic early responder. I was totally surprised that suddenly the alcohol didn't grab a hold of me and that it took over an hour to finish the drink -- unheard of! I like to say that the experience was that I had a drink, but the drink didn't have me!
I had been drinking every day for years though for the last few of them I was more of a binge drinker. I went through a period about 2 years ago where I was just tired of drinking and I quit drinking for a month and when I resumed I only drank on weekends with friends. I describe the feeling as if I had been enchanted and alcohol's spell was broken. But within a year I was back to drinking more than I should and the worst part was that I was craving it. My life was starting to revolve around having social situations where drinking would occur.
I think I discovered nal by googling alternate methods as I knew that AA would never be an option for me. Their antiquated quasi-religious "methods" are a put off to a rationalist/atheist like myself and more importantly, it doesn't work. I read Dr. Eskapa's book and that convinced me to try tsm.
My drinking has been totally within normal bounds (8-10/wk with 2-5 AF days; the most I've had since nal is 18/wk). And at 5 months almost to the day everything completely clicked! My ambitions and desires, some old and some new, have surfaced and I am enjoying pursuing them.
I so enjoy having myself back!