Hi everyone, I am new to this method, I plan to start TSM soon and have a question - how many of you still feel the buzz after drinking on Naltrexone? How would you describe this state if you experience it?

Welcome, Lilavi. Here's a link to a discussion of this:

http://optionssavelives.freeforums.net/thread/303/drinking-naltrexone-feel

Suffice it to say it's a bit different for everyone. Keep us posted and feel free to ask any questions.

Thank you for a response. I read the topic - it's interesting. Can you tell me what is your experience with feeling/not feeling the buzz?

Well, I'm an early commenter in that link, but I do not feel any buzz. No 'ahh' moment. No warm feeling. If I have 3 or 4 liquor drinks I will feel a bit drunkish or numbed. I've only done that twice in three months and I pay for it the entirety of the next day(nausea). It's not really worth it. Basically, like all treatments for AUD you're giving up your best friend. This method is just considerably more peaceful. It's really great.

Initially I felt no effect whatsoever from alcohol. I guess this is what is called the honeymoon period. Then, I tried to drink more and more to get the effect with no results.
Now, after 4-1/2 months, I feel something different when I drink - I do feel it, but it is not as wonderful as it was. But, I do feel it, it is just different, hard to describe. The craving that used to happen is gone for the most part. You know, that feeling like you would do anything to get another drink!
Also, it is definitely possible to feel drunk. I have not gotten the Nalovers people lament about, but it definitely is a worse hangover.
But, you know what, if you do what they say - the golden rule- your body adjusts and doesn't even remember the euphoria it once got from alcohol. At least, that is my experience. So now, I have to break the habit of drinking just for the hell of it.

Susie, so what's the difference between getting drunk and feeling the euphoria for you? You can get drunk on Nal without feeling great? So how do you know that you are getting drunk if not by feeling the buzz?

Alcohol still has an effect on other receptors in your brain, like the GABA and Glutimate receptors. Nal just blocks the opioid receptors. I still get a "warm and fuzzy" feeling from alch, but with the Nal, your brain doesn't remember it (it doesn't become learned) and actually starts to "forget". That's what eventually kills the cravings.

Like Joe says, alcohol still has an affect on other receptors. You know when you have too many drinks in a night, you feel drunk but the euphoria is long gone...that is how it feels to drink too much on Nal. If you just have one or two drinks, you really don't feel much of anything.
Hope this helps.
Susie

I can say that when I first started I still felt the buzz after drinking heavily. But before starting TSM that first drink was truly a narcotic reaction. That went away rather quickly but if I drank through the NAL I still got stupid! Now I really do not feel much from drinking. That is why I stop after a couple with the exception of drinking out of habit when boating or at big event. I am not feeling that narcotic feeling - but still find it comforting in some weird way to drink.

But after 8 months of TSM I can say that I am just about where I wanted to be when I started. And when I started I was a mess. But now - on a day to day basis I am not very interested in drinking. My numbers are almost normal and after 40 years of overdoing it that is remarkable.

But if you are worried that if you take nal that you will never have fun again - not to worry there is plenty of fun with out AL

I still feel the buzz but the only thing now is that I no longer suffer 'the chase.' The only reason why I drank really was because I had to cure the withdrawal from the previous nights drinking. That was the first drink of the night. That's the one that hit like a ton of bricks and turned lions into kittens and cold rain into warm sun rays. It's amazing to me now that I would fret all day long for that first one, that initial hit that would last a good 15 minutes and then subject me yet once again to a full night of drinking till i passed out. All I wanted was that 15 minutes but with it came a night of drinking, a hangover, withdrawal, suffering, and finally the cure.

I always knew that 15 minutes was not worth it. It never was. How could it be? And yet there I was day after day waking up to promise myself not to drink again that day only to be right back at it again.

So yeah, that part is now gone and I don't miss it one pound. I can now have that first drink, still get some kind of buzz off it, and not worry about it. So there is a difference but it's overwhelmingly for the better.