on the topic of marijuana-

i absolutely love the drug and am surprised there are not more dual users on this board.

the preliminary research i have done indicates that the pleasure pathways overlap to some degree. while i don't want to give up on the herb i suppose i could let it go if it means picking between eventual controlled drinking and the previous world of out of control train wrecking on the bottle.

this is such a frontier, this world of TSM- we just don't know if marijuana intake (which makes me euphoric by the way) effects the naL STM treatment.

i feel that the naL is definitely having an effect (my intake is down by half through 4 days... honeymoon period i surmise) and wonder if smoking might in some way confuse the brain's reward mechanisms.....

is anyone in this boat with me?- the boat of wanting to continue to smoke (not just as a way to cut down on drinking but because it is pleasurable) but worried about the possible negative effects if could have on the extinction process?

i am new to this game and absolutely love this site. thank you all!

I occasionally smoke weed - not real regularly, maybe once or twice a month. I don't have any problem with marijuana addiction, so I see no reason to stop. My plan is to not smoke in my early TSM days (I'm just getting started), but once I start having some AF days, allow myself to smoke on those days, if I so choose. I don't like to smoke and get drunk at the same time anyway, maybe a couple of beers. Before finding TSM, I toyed with the idea of getting high every day so I would drink less

I'm experimenting myself. I'd love to see the weed reduce the drinking, but so far it hasn't. I'm definitely more relaxed and sleeping better with smoking 1-3x/wk. Maybe it will replace alcohol occassionally; it's certainly less harmful.

I'm a weekend binge drinker, about a year into TSM. Numbers are down a little; very recently I've noticed a hesitation to grab that next beer, accompanied by the thought that "it's not going to change my state that much now, and will just make me feel that much worse tomorrow." Usually only Friday nights; this weekend I was going to abstain Saturday, but my neighbors invited me over for a drink. I kept it to 6-7 beers, as the above line of thinking kicked in.

Hi Ready-
I'm a dual user as well though I've never really had a problem with marijuana before. It's something that I find pretty easy to moderate especially as I've gotten older. Where I live personal, private, recreational use is very common and having your own plants is even legal. My use tends to go up and down where I may smoke 3 times a week for a couple of weeks and then not again for over a month or more. Use tends to go up with the seasons too- I like to relax in the summertime sun.
This is why when I first introduced myself I also questioned the combination. I'm pretty leary about mixing it, but this past weekend I did smoke. I hadn't taken a Nal in about 20 hours and didn't again until about 4 hours after smoking so the two didn't mix too much. The only thing I noticed is that I may have been slightly more sensitive to the marijuana. But, no paranoid freak outs or anything- so that's good. I will probably stick to that type of using for the remainder on Nal. But, I also noticed that the marijuana was a bit of a trigger for me though. It did make me want to have a beer but I was too nervous to take a Nal while high so I had to fight off that urge. If marijuana continues to prove to be a difficult trigger I will stop using it until my drinking gets more under control.

I've just started TSM as well so we'll see how it goes. I'd like to learn how it might be affecting your progress too so keep in touch.

-akdragonfly

I'll smoke it if it's there - usually with a beer or two - but I don't go out of my way to get it. Alcohol's a different story, although I no longer drink a six-pack and then hit the road for another. I guess that's progress.

Sometimes the mj can make the beer taste better and be a trigger, but the NAL is gradually extinguishing the "knee-jerk" reaction to keep drinking more. I almost always combine the two, usually Friday nights only. Then mj alone 1-2 more times /week, sometimes for insomnia.

There's a comment by Dr. Eskapa somewhere on this board re NAL not affecting mj receptors.

makes me feel soooooo different, must act on different parts of brain

but i like both!!!

I am by no means a current mj smoker (maybe 6 times a year?), though I have smoked lots in the past....The main thing to remember is that nal will intensify (or combine with) any other chemical in your system. That goes for alcohol; that goes for aspirin; that goes for mj. As a rule of thumb, the fewer the combining elements, the better and lesser chance of risk. However, I don't think there is anything inherently wrong about combining al+nal+mj....but be careful. You might feel the mj effect much earlier and much stronger, and want to be aware of a potential gag/vomit reflex. In the intiital stages of TSM, I'd say try and stick to just al.
EL

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