just started last week on TSM, I was drinking about 14 beers/vodka shots per week mostly on the weekends, where I would basically binge one night every two weeks or so and in between would be able to control intake. However, the binge would invariably lead to many many bad incidents which ranged from the just embarrassing (falling over at the firm christmas party into the CEO) to dangerous (falling off my bike i was riding to avoid driving drunk and breaking two ribs). I had succeeded in quitting drinking for a year, then back on until another bad incident then not drinking for four months then back on until another blowup and then off for two months. I found tsm on the internet after a bad night and now have taken it and see that it makes alcohol much less potent and the effects of alcohol are greatly reduced and the cravings leading up to the binge night are reduced so that there is no anticipation of the effect of alcohol and the relief of taking those first few shots.... went to a social function last saturday night which would have been my binge night since I had not binged in two weeks and only had four beers over 5 hours after taking 50mg.. During the week before I had 6 af days which is also abnormal since i would normally drink on a thursday night which would lead into the weekend. My hope is to be able to avoid the bad binge night by taking the 50 mg anytime before I drink. I am a partner in a large law firm, wife, three kids in private school, belong to a country club, take great family vacations, have a large group of friends, great clients....but my wife said on the last trip when I got hammered that i ruin everything because I get drunk and either act the fool or do something embarrassing, or insulting to family or friends in my drunken blackout...there is a long list of woe and a lot of scars, i am cautiously hopeful that this will work, I have tried cold turkey but it only came back worse

Welcome to the forum and TSM D-D. There's a lot of great info here and a lot of great people. Read as much as you can about how TSM works and feel free to ask questions and ask for support. The more you know the better it works, IMO.

You're in the right place and making the right decision. Stay with is and us.

Thanks...i think that being able to say things on this board that i have never told anyone is somewhat uplifting or relieving..no one knows i broke a couple of ribs when i took a header over my bike handles at the age of 44 and did not miss a day of work at the office or the time i got kicked out of a strip club which was only one bad aspect of a whole series of bad in what was supposed to be only a business trip to meet clients and do a court appearance.

Also have my 15 year old daughter's father daughter dance coming up in a few weeks, I plan on taking that 50 mg nal and being completely able to have a few and be done with it and remain sober which is a big difference from last year when I went to her dance, got wasted and dont remember the after party but woke up the next morning with a large bruise on my arm and my wife was totally pissed off because i was drunk and she had to come pick us up at the bar where the after party was...

but my question is...when I took 2 50 mg tables in week one they made feel like i was in day 2-4 of a hangover where i did not want to think about drinking but i did not feel right but was feeling like my mind was slow acting. I was ok with that since i had no urge to drink, but is that normal, does it continue or how does it change?

Welcome to the forum, Double-D. Huh. I was sure you were a female... never jump to conclusions by one's username, I guess!

Strap in, soldier. You are undoubtedly in for a long and bumpy ride. TSM will take you up, down and all around. Get yourself a calendar and begin tracking your intake. This will definitely help, especially when you are making real progress months and months down the yellow-bricked road.

It's quite the journey, but this treatment beats the alternative: Wasting away in Margaritaville--- or whatever "Ville" your alcoholism resides in.

I am in my 11th month. Finally I am beginning to see a true shift. Not a "cure" just yet. We here on the board don't throw that word around lightly. We use the term "regaining control." And I am nearing the end of this very l-o-n-g process. Thank God, as I was a hot mess a year ago!

Devour the threads of those who have gone before us. You'll find these blogs on "The Cured List." I am encouraging you to take a look at MinneapolisNick, as he is also a barrister and writes extremely well.

Good luck to you counselor. Rest assured... sounds like you are in the right place at the right time with the right treatment.

So it begins,

Ketchikan1

Welcome d-d!

It takes a a week or so for the body to adjust to the medication and the side effects will tame down.

Post often and read lots,

Best wishes on your journey.
K

Thanks for the replies much appreciated...

I have a calendar and write down daily what I drink, for some reason I had been using a calendar off and on for years to try to get a handle on how much I was drinking to look for patterns to try to understand it and then to try to control it after I understood it. However, i read that someone said that fighting alcoholism without NAL is like fighting with one hand behind your back and that could not be more true... you can stop for months and then be at a baseball game with clients and how do you say nah i'm good I don't want a 16 oz stadium beer? Really, people look at you like you have two heads, or when you hit the turn after playing 9 and your friends load up with a bag of beer on ice? Same, you can hide it by just not drinking it but after a while it wears you down.. how many times do you say no and at the same time you want to chug that beer and down 4 more just like that in the next 1/2 hour and then be the life of the party until you go overboard.

I also read a good book titled..."The Easy Way to Stop Drinking" By Allen Carr, who was a raging alcholic and was able to stop by realizing that there was absolutly no benefit to drinking, there is no social benefit (you just get drunk and become abnoxious or come home drunk when you and your family is staying at your step mother beach house and fall back wards onthe floor in your sister in laws bedroom with a loud crash wake up the family and be yelled at your wife which leads to a no drinking spell of 4 months), nor any other benefits, it does not calm your nerves only makes then worse because you become so anxious after a blackout spell, what did i do? who did i insult? why did i drive? This does not calm your nerves but makes it worse, and he goes on to debunk all of the other reasons why people feel they need to drink..

I thought that this book was very interesting and this realization along with Nal seems to be good combination.

Anyone know why you need a prescription for Nal if it is not a prescription?

Anyone know why you need a prescription for Nal if it is not a narcotic?

To buy at a pharmacy in person, yes but you can buy from one of the online pharmacies which issue prescriptions for their own orders.