Hi all.

I am new to the forum and new TSM. Both my Naltima and the books are on their way, and I am already experiencing a great sense of relief just knowing that my chances of successfully beating this thing and taking my life back have just increased exponentially.

I am curious about something. I have been playing around with dealcoholized wine lately. I finally found a brand that I can tolerate the taste of, and I have noticed that it doesn’t seem to “flip the switch“ in my brain in the same way that real wine does.

While I am doing TSM, would it be advisable to use the naltrexone even with dealcoholized wine, should I choose to consume it? The stuff that I am using right now says that it “contains less than 1/2 of 1% alcohol by volume”. Do you guys think that this tiny percentage of alcohol would be enough to “flip my switch”?

No, you'll want to stick to standard spirits in my opinion. It is key to extinction episodes and 'unrewarded' (endorphin blocked) relearning.

Thanks! I was curious about that. The idea of actually “having to drink“ on this treatment plan is something that I am still trying to get my head wrapped around. I guess I have just had too many years of “abstinence indoctrination”.

So, what you’re saying is is that if I choose to consume a dealcoholized product, that I should NOT take the NAL. I can see where there may be times that I would choose this. I am also a diabetic, and alcohol does screw around with my blood sugars. So, it may be nice by times to be able to enjoy an adult beverage (or at least, one that appears to be an adult beverage) without having to worry about what the alcohol is doing to my blood sugars, regardless of the fact that it is no longer causing the endorphin reaction in my brain.

Yeah, the mainstream quit-for-brains abstinence yodelers have to bark that out every time and pound it in like mad, just to attain the miserable success rate they have.

You might consider the NA wine if you're approaching the "switch" point, like if you normally lose quantity control at the 4th drink, have 2 or 3 glasses of regular wine and then switch to the NA stuff. You actually only need one drink after you take the Nal and wait an hour, so whatever you can do to keep the cork in the bottle after that first glass is OK. Best to wait till you actually crave a drink, so the brain is really anticipating that first sip. While you may enjoy it, the addicted part of the brain won't remember that you did and that's what we're shooting for.

Thanks so much for the direction folks! I am still awaiting my Naltima and the books, so have not started yet. I sipped dealchoholized wine most of the day, and then went out with a friend and had one glass of red wine (5 oz... normally I would order a double).

I went straight home to the dealcoholized wine... seems to be working for now.

Nice work on keeping that total down, Zucker!