Hi all,

I've read the book, and think I am ready to try, but I guess I am concerned that I don't really drink enough right now for it to work. Basically, because of the pressures and responsibilities of my on-call career, I can't really drink much without major potential repercussions. So, it varies a lot, but when I am on-call I'll drink about 0-2 drinks every night and then 3 or 4 on Friday and Saturday nights, or sometimes only Saturday. The problem is that maintaining this level of drinking takes a herculean effort on my part, and there are inevitable slip-ups. Of course, on the rare days when I am off-call I always drink way, way too much and have increasingly horrific hangovers.

I would just love to stop feeling like I white knuckling it, but I see that a few cured people are drinking at levels that I do now. I don;t even care if I continue to drink at this rate, really, I just want the cravings and obsessing to GO AWAY. I have a history of drinking much, much more and other substance abuse issues, though on both accounts it has been many years.

Also, for the past several months I have been using some HAMS techniques and am actually drinking quite a bit less overall - around 14 drinks a week. It still feels extremely difficult.

Anyway, anyone have any experience with the sinclair method starting out in the 14-20 drinks a week range?

In my opinion, this would be a great move for you. From everything I read, it is more important how often you drink than how much you drink. I have talked to my wife about trying it and she doesn't drink too much but too often. I am thinking of adding other stuff to TSM in order to reduce the amounts I drink daily. I believe that frequent, controlled drinking would be the safest way.

Hi Linseed. Like you, my numbers were lower than most on here when I started TSM, but alcohol was a problem for me, and getting worse. When I did drink, it was too much, I was starting to partake in unhealthy, unsafe activities when I drank, I was starting to have a few too many "slip and falls" while drinking, the hangovers were getting worse. I knew it was a problem and getting worse. I tried many methods to cut back, limit my intake, etc. all of which failed. UNTIL I FOUND TSM! TSM worked for me. There were some ups and downs, some extinction bursts, but in the end TSM worked. I would highly recommend it. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

It's worth a try. If you are drinking more than you want then that's enough to try TSM.

What are HAMS techniques?

Best wishes!

All the more reason to give it a go, sure you need to control your intake for other reasons but no reason not to do it. I've had to curtail my drinking for 'other' reasons at the moment and I was very apprehensive that somehow this would reverse the effect of TSM because I'm rarely drinking anything. It hasn't!

Thanks for the encouragement. I received my shipment from River Pharmacy today. My doctor and I are colleagues in a sense so I did not really want to talk about it with her. I am not one to get side effects from medication, so I hope its a smooth transition for me.

Good luck Linseed, I do think and hope you will benefit from nal. According to my point of view the first thing it does is make binges less destructive.

Btw I think it would be great if moderators opened separate sections for moderate drinkers, heavy drinkers and alcoholics.

Well, its week two and I am feeling really encouraged. I feel like I have the sudden ability to override that crazy urge to drink more. Last night I went on our weekly dinner-with-friends night which is typically a moderation nightmare for me. I'm always aware of what others are drinking, how much is left, if anyone will notice (everyone knows I am on-call) id I have one too many. I had a beer. It was okay - right at the end I felt that little surge of energy and excitement, that little voice that tells me to DRINK MORE AND MORE, so I opened another and chugged about half of it. Then I thought, whoa, what am I doing. I put the beer down and more or less had to force myself to finish it before we left. Weird. I love it!

Good. You appear to be what some call a responder. Please do be aware this could be your honeymoon period, and be prepared for an increase in your drinking again. Do not give up if it does go through the roof, just keep taking the nal 1 hour beforehand and you'll be ok.