I wanted to pop in and give an update on my progress. I started TSM two weeks ago and immediately noticed a difference. Side effects have been there, namely slight abdominal cramps/nausea... "Weird" hangovers, not necessarily worse than before but just different, excessive sweating the day after drinking, along with anxiety and some shaking. Don't think this is withdrawal, I believe it is the Nal. However I will take these side effects due to the amazing change in my drinking patterns over a few short weeks. I've completely stopped drinking alone...and I would say overall consumption is in 25-50 percent down already. This is mostly due I think to the fact that I am still younger..27.. And on the weekends going out with friends means consuming more. But the huge difference is I'm not going out focused on drinking and getting drunk. The new focus is on engaging socially, meeting new people, laughing, and entertaining. Before it was trying to drink as much as possible before last call. I know that at any given time, I can quit and I won't think about trying to drink more the next day. Previously I started going on 2-3 day benders which led me here. Nothing close since. I have definitely over indulged a few times since TSM, but nothing like before, where as a bad night on Nal might be 15 units and before it was 30. I've also had occasions where I've gone out and had 4 drinks, and been OK with it. Not wanting to seek out more alcohol or go alone to a bar after and tie one on. I feel a lot more freedom. I haven't skipped a dose and I don't plan on it. Before m, having 3-4 drinks and quitting would have been impossible. I think I still have work to do before I declare myself cured, a lot. But i don't think my end goal is to be alcohol free. I am enjoying almost a newfound enjoyment of socializing in a healthy way that I haven't been able to remember for 5 years. It feels great. I guess my only question is this ok or does this seem dangerous? Taking nal and still overindulging at times but in idk how to say, a healthier way? I appreciate the support and wish everyone luck on their journeys as well.

Although I am much older than you, I too am enjoying the social side, not going out to get drunk!

I am drinking about 2/3 of a bottle of wine each day, but I am enjoying it, rather than necking it for the effect!

I recently changed from Naltrexone to Nalmemfene as I found I could easily drink through the Naltrexone. Nalmefene somehow, is different and has different effects. I cannot explain it apart from Nalmefene affects different receptors.

If anyone out there can explain the difference to me in simple terms, I would appreciate it.

Anyway, good luck on your journey. I am 10 months in......I have had ups and downs like everyone else.

Summer

I am so happy for both of you. It is such a life changing situation. I feel so happy to finally be free from alcohol. I can take it or leave it. In the shop, I have no urge to buy wine. Of course, I still need to be mindful in social situation, since I tend to have a drink or two over what could have been enough for me. I hope that soon, I will only have about two drinks when I am out.

Nal on!

Ellpo,

It sounds like you are having a really good honeymoon phase. I had those hangovers (nal overs) and they can get a lot worse. The first time I had one I thought I needed to go to the E.R., but it got better 2 days later. I do not think it is withdrawal either, for you described how it was for me when I had a slight nal. over.

Just remember that the honeymoon phase may end. Only a few kept their intake down after the honeymoon phase, and most of us had our intake increase, but never above pre-nal levels. It can be scary, so please be careful.

That overindulgence will go away, so do not worry about. Before you know it, you will be nursing one or two beers and not really that into it, for that is the progress of TSM.

If you are concerned you could have your liver enzymes checked (I cannot remember where you are). You do not need a doctors prescriptions if you are in the US, just go to any lab and ask for the test (I am unsure about the price, and you may have to pay out-of-pocket depending on your insurance. I think with you being 27, unless you have done something else that could injure your liver, you should be fine. HOWEVER, I am not a doctor, so please take what I am saying with a grain of salt.

I am glad to see that your progress is going so well! I look forward to you updating you progress,

Jaba

Summerglow,

I am happy to hear about your progress, and I am glad you found that Nalmefene is working for you (getting past the side effect I hear can be brutal). I did a quick search and it seem the Nalm. works on the smaller receptors (per one research page) and this article claims it hits the different opioid receptors:

The first medication developed for the treatment of alcohol dependence was naltrexone, an opioid receptor blocker. At therapeutic doses, it blocks most of the mu subtype of opioid receptors in the brain but it has lesser effects at the delta and kappa subtype of opioid receptors. Nalmefene is a newer opioid receptor modulator that has a subtly different profile at opioid receptor subtypes, with increased relative potency for kappa opiate receptors compared to its potency at mu opiate receptors. It was studied here because it has been shown to have potential for reducing alcohol consumption.

"It remains to be seen whether the differences between nalmefene and naltrexone at opioid receptors yield meaningful differences in their effectiveness," cautioned Krystal.

http://www.news-medical.net/news/201304 ... ients.aspx

It is still a little technical maybe someone can explain it in simpler terms,

Jaba

Ellpo, that sounds great. You are on the right track. I only heard of TSM about 8 months ago and started 4 months ago. After reading everything I could about it and learning that it was actually available in 1994 when I was 24 years old I kind of get angry thinking of the last 20 years of my life progressing as an alcoholic when there was a treatment that works. But anyway... No regrets really. And honestly when I was 24 I probably would have shunned it anyway. But you sound like you have a good mindset and I think that goes a long way in the process of the TSM cure. TSM biologically and physically works, no doubt about it, for the far majority of people who try it. The ones who fail either have some other biological conditions that make so it doesn't work (there probably is no drug treatment in the world that works for everyone) or they have other psychological issues that come into play one of which often times is 'I just want to get drunk' and so they don't take their Naltrexone. Then of course there are failures due to the fact that most doctors don't prescribe the meds properly.

Anyway. It sounds like you are on the right track. I know exactly what you mean too. Getting drunk every day to the point you pass out and then wake up sick and promise yourself not to do it again that night only to find yourself at the liquor store again around 5PM is not rational thinking. Traditional treatment plans dismiss TSM as a viable treatment plan because they are still stuck in the draconian idea that drinking is a sign of moral weakness and that people drink to hide problems of childhood trauma and so on and blah blah blah. But we know as alcoholics that our drinking is more of an impulsive reflexive action and not one made by rational thought, not one made to hide and trauma or what ever. We just need to drink because we drink because we drank.

I used to drink as much as possible before the bar closed too. In fact I would drink before going to the bar and often times have my own flask in my pocket while at the bar. At any moment that I could sneak away I'd drink more with this insane idea that I need to 'stock up' on my drinking for the night jsut in case there is no more for later. That of course would catch up to me and I'd be pass out drunk before too long. I made a habit of asking myself when really drunk If I am enjoying myself and the answer was always no so why go there? Why would I continue to do this? There is no rationality at all in alcoholism, there is just alcoholism and that is a function of the opioidergic system of the primitive brain which TSM has crushed. And now liek yourself and so many others I can actually enjoy a beer or two. Last night after my bike race I went to the bar with the gang as usual for dinner and drinks. Had two beers came home and my wife poured herself a glass of wine and I just drank water.

That would have been absolutely impossible just 4 months ago.

Keep up the good work and good luck!

Thank you for that, and I sort of understand. The side effects were bad, but I had an ear infection at the same time, so I can't really blame all on the Nalm.

I'm still pouring the rest down the sink, so all good...but, what a waste of money, butyou do what you have to do!

Summer

Summerglow,

It will come, for I have a couple of bottles of wine just sitting in my bedroom closet (I am still hiding my drinking from my kids). It just takes time.

I have poured out 3/4's of a bottle before and I know what you mean about it being a waste of money, but at the time I just couldn't trust myself.

Another funny thing is I was brought up not to leave food on your plate, for it is wasteful (and a sin)...but I never did that to my kids, so why do I feel so guilty about dumping alcohol? For at times it is actually better to go down the sink than down my throat!

Jaba

Jaba

I too had to eat all my food, that's where it is coming from I'm sure.....Nalm. has definitely helped me, and again, I am happy having a few...just not happy on 3-4 day benders!!

Elipo glad to hear it is going well. Keep on following the golden rule and it will continue to get even better for you. Of course the progress will not be without its ups and downs. (just had a little down this week myself). But if you log your drinks the best you can you will see that even with the setbacks there is progress being made.

Summerglow congrats on your progress as well. You have me curious though. What happens on 12/7? a birthday?