Hi. I'm new -- on day eight of Naltrexone. Thus far (I realize it's early) I'm not finding much reason to be optimistic (hence the name). I've had no real negative side effects but also no honeymoon period so can't help but wonder if I'm someone who isn't really affected. But I'll give it four or five months before giving up.

My specific question is whether there's a formula used to measure alcohol units. I've searched the site a couple times but the terms are used so frequently I didn't find a helpful answer.

Thanks for your help.

Here's an excel spreadsheet that will do it for you: http://www.tsmnet.net/spreadsheet/

You can also use it as your drinking diary.

edit: if you want to use US units

personally I think uk units are the easiest to deal with. A UK unit is 10ml of pure alcohol. That makes it very easy to calculate. You just look at the percentage alcohol in your favourite tipple - most drinks will display this on the label. And count the number of litres you drank - that is the number of units.

e.g. I drink whiskey, at 40% alcohol (80 proof for those who prefer the american notation for spirts). If I drink two litres of that per week it is 2x40=80 units
wine is typically about 12%. If I drink 8 bottles in a week that is 8*0.75=6 litres, so 72 units (=6*12)
beer (where I live) is usually 4.3% (American beer is often significantly weaker I'm aware), so 3 litres of beer would be 12.9 units

1-4
Thanks for the illumination- its so simple i didn't realise. I've been using the drinkaware.co.uk site which provides a calculator. Its helpful for when you only drink 2-3 glasses and can't rem the alcohol content cos it actually gives you a list of drink brand names.

Welcome notoptomistic- lets hope you will be able to change your name in the future to quietlyoptomistic. At the moment you need to be patiently optomistic. At the moment you need mega doses of patience to go with your 50mg of Nal. If you read some of the early postings in the weekly progress threads you will see a whole variety of side effects and none listed.

I am totally confused. One post says that 8 bottles of wine equals 72 units from the formula 8*0.75=6 litres, so 72 units. Another post recommends the calculator at drinkaware.co.uk which says that one glass of wine equals 3.75 units. They can't both be right can they? How many units is one glass of red wine considered to be?

Carolinagirl

All countries have different units of measure. Check this link [url]http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/scol/ccalcoh3.htm[url] It gives you a drop down list of countries to select and you can see how the units vary from place to place. Frankly, I find the whole counting rather hard to keep track of and sometimes I go with 4 units of wine for 1 750 ml bottle because that is how many glasses it pours for me and sometimes I actually record the 5 units that the U.S. says it is. So, for me it's not a fine art of keeping track but the ballpark lets me know where I am. Really, if I have 40 drinks vs. 43 I know that I am still drinking too much. The cure isn't going to show up with these kinds of numbers!! I'll know I'm making progress when I count in single digits.

Thanks, Claremont. I'm going to use 1 glass of wine = one unit which is kind of what I was figuring when I read everybody's posts. I guess it only makes a difference in amounts as it applies to our own situation. More is more and less is less, no matter what measure you use.