I have been a heavy drinker for about 15 years. I am typically a binge drinker and in my dark days would drink over a 100 drinks in a week but on average about 60. I recently started the sinclair method after many failed attemps at abstanince. I have been taking Nodict 90 minutes before drinking and I have noticed my drinking is slower and a little more controlled but I am still drinking a lot. I started the TSM method about a month ago but I am worried it is not working because I still drink a lot and feel like **** the next day or 3 days. How long until I start seeing some changes or should I pull the plug before it gets out of control again? I have heard Nodict is no good so just ordered some Naltima and will give that a go.
Thank you

Hi LastResort -

Welcome to the forums and congratulations on your launch! It sounds like you're getting a reaction from the Nal, which is a very good indication that it will work for you. Good job on holding off the extra 30 minutes, that does seem to help in some cases.

In my experience, bingers do have a harder time with it, due to the nature of their drinking (dry days followed by a heavy spike in drinking). Additionally, it's the odd chart that doesn't show the Honeymoon Effect, where drinking levels decrease when starting TSM, then climb back up. This is where keeping a log of your drinks comes in handy, as what happens most of the time is a decrease, followed by an increase, followed by a decrease, etc., but in general drinking levels are vectoring down. Typically, after the Honeymoon, drinking levels will roll off more slowly than they did initially. Patience and persistence are the watchword here, ensure you take the Nal at least an hour beforehand every time and every drinking session will put another erase another bit of the compulsion to drink. NB, the book mentions a 3 month timeline, but it often takes longer than that. I was a daily drinker (30 years) and it took me over 5 months till I started seeing back to back dry days.

Nodict also seems to be somewhat more of a problem for some, you may try switching to Naltima and in the meantime, breaking the Nodict in half and taking both halves if you really aren't noticing a difference with the whole pill. The coating on Nodict seems to be thicker than on other brands and if your gastrointestinal system is nuked by alcohol, you might have a harder time getting through the coating.

One thing that one wants to be on the lookout for with TSM is when your brain tells you that you've had enough for the evening. That can be a difficult point to find at first, but practice watching for that point every drinking session, then when you get that notion, act on it and stop drinking for the night. That's a communication from the conscious part of your brain that we may have grown used to ignoring, as we've tried so often to moderate drinking that way, we tend to just shut it out. You may have some luck with changing your habits around drinking, like not holding the drink in your hand, slowing the first drink down as much as possible, keeping the subsequent drinks out of sight and going in for a sip in between short tasks at home. Basically, doing your best to sabotage the "routine" part of drinking. Nal will be working on erasing the compulsion to drink, mindful drinking can help bust up the "habit" part of drinking. Use it to disturb the "ecology" and habitat of the habit. It's screwed with you all these years, now it's time to turn the tables. Review this for other ideas:

http://optionssavelives.freeforums.net/ ... hints-tips

Hang out with us, keep posting and telling us about your progress. We're glad you joined and we're here to help you on your journey homewards!

" I have noticed my drinking is slower and a little more controlled"

Then it's working

One month is nothing. You will find people here who after one year have finally started seeing results. So hang in there and stick with the program.

Another thing you find helpful is tracking. If you have a smart phone there are apps that make it real easy to track your drinks. Not only is this useful data that will show your improvement over time but there's something about the actual process of tracking while you drink that helps put it in perspective. It's a mindfulness tool really.

Thanks for the replies. I am now thinking of giving up on the Naltrexone method. I took a pill (new Naltima brand) at around 6:00 pm. I then drank at a company barbeque until about 10 pm. I had to urge to drink more so I went to the bar where I continued to drink until 5 am. Long story short I ended up blacking out and getting in a fight and other trouble and then missing work and taking the nal again the next day. Drank 3 beers and got so sick and vomited. I stopped and havnt drank since (3 days). Everything is ok now because I was around friends but this is exactly the reason I am trying to quit drinking. I am worried I could do more damage to myself in the year of trying to make the Naltrexone work or it may not work at all. I am so tired of the guilt and shame attached to my drinking and letting down those closest to me. I think it is possible that taking Naltrexone gives me an excuse to drink and it may be doing more harm than good. I am guessing the reson it got out if control is I should have taken another dose around 2am but yea the last 3 days have been a crazy bout of depression and anxiety. Any advice or any comments would be helpful. I am now thinking of going back to abstanaince but I also do not want to have to go to meetings and live in fear of relapse for the rest of my life. Has anyone tried upping the dose to 75mg ot 100 mg? I am 80 kg and 6'2 male.

Were you already drinking when you started TSM? If you're going to go at TSM the standard way, you have to put in the time and there's no way around that. It sounds like you're getting results, though.

There is another approach used by a guy in the UK. Detox and then bring back alch with the Naltrexone an hour before (as ususal). The man is a nurse practitioner and this is the method he uses with his patients, home detox with the proper meds (if home detox can be done), then reintroduces alcohol, but nary a drop without the Nal firmly in place first. Even if the client doesn't want a drink at that time. When the detox is done, it's right into TSM. So that could be a happy medium, because abstinence alone (or even with meetings) only works about 10% of the time. This is not standard TSM, for sure though. This is similar to people that have been in AA and are abstinent, but decide to break abstinence with TSM (because they're about to break abstinence anyway).

Another approach might be Baclofen but you'll take that for the rest of your life, from what I understand. Over at TheEndOfMyAddiction.org they focus primarily on Baclofen. You slowly titrate up till you become indifferent to alcohol, then you taper back (slowly) to a maintenance dose. You can't quit Baclofen suddenly. Naltrexone you can turn on and off, take it for a week then suddenly stop taking it. Not so with Baclofen, it's more akin to benzos in that respect. Not something you want to do if you have bad impulse control.

Thanks Joe. actually yea I was sober already for 2 months before I started TSM. I knew I was gonna relapse anyways so I thought I would try it. It is jut scary though because when I am sober I feel great but whenever I drink alchohal it destroys my life and wellbwing so yea. would TSM still work if I abstain for a month and then drink and repeat?

If you literally hadn't drunk anything for 2 months before you started TSM, then I don't know that's going to work any better the 2nd time around.

Are you taking any other meds?

yes I didn't drink a drop for actually 2 and a half months prior to starting TSM and before that I was sober for 8 months but began relapsing every couple months after that. When I relapse I will drink heavily for 4 or 5 days until I am a complete mess and then abstain again. I was under the impression with TSM you had to drink for it to work so I started drinking 2 to 3 times a week again.

That's correct, you have to drink on the Nal for TSM. Specifically, you wait until you crave, take the pill, wait an hour and have a drink.

As I mentioned before, the process is generally a lot more up and down for bingers, as that's how they drink anyway. From what I've noticed though, bingers seem to get rid of the blackouts pretty soon into the process. If you didn't get a substantial initial drop in your drinking and didn't notice any difference in the rate of blackouts, then you may need more Naltrexone for TSM you might fall within the 10% that does everything right, but TSM just doesn't do the trick for you.

Are you taking any other meds? Sometimes that can have an impact.

How old were you when you started drinking?

I started drinking at 13 years old. It was only a weekend thing during highschool but when I turned 19 it became an everyday and binging thing. The only kind of medication I take is when I get severe anxiety from a hangover. I don't have to take it all the time I would say a couple times a month I take .05 mg of Klonopin (clonazepam). I also take a lot of multivitamins and some herbs (Testosterone boosters all natural.)