I started taking 50mg Nal April 29, 2013 after years and years of heaving drinking. went to rehab, tried AA of and on, and finally heard about Nal through Claudia Christian's book. At the point where i started, i had just gone through yet another horrible withdrawal period and was severely anxious and stressed. Since i started, i have had one ten day period of abstinence (semi forced because i was with my parents and didn't want to drink in front of them). and a few scattered AF days but overall i am drinking as heavily as i was pre TSM. However, i haven't had one "bender" since i started, no round the clock drinking, far fewer black outs and only a handful of days where i experienced withdrawal symptoms, and they were relatively minor in comparison to what i have experienced a dozen or more times prior to TSM. Also no crazy embarrassing incidents...So in some respects i feel that is is very slowly working, and i've read on many posts that it can take a year or more before it clicks but i'm just very worried i may be in that small minority for which it doesn't work...i've never drank without taking my Nal one hour prior since i started. i have however, had to wait more than one hour before being able to drink. I'm going to keep on plugging with the Nal and pray that it will kick in soon.

Hmm. Is it possible that you're on too low a dose? I wonder because you said you had to wait more than an hour. Some people need 62.5mg or 75mg, and a handful need even a little more than that.

Some people are just slow responders, and it sounds like you've made some progress, but I can see why you're concerned that you haven't seen more after seven months.

It's always possible that you're one of the 10% with a different addiction mechanism, but since you're seeing some progress and the nal helps with a longer wait, my intuition says that's not it.

I've thought about increasing dosage, and i may speak to my doctor about it but i'm so worried already about my liver and the damage i'm doing to my body, that i hate to increase unless i absolutely have to. To clarify, when i said i wasn't able to drink, it was because i misjudged when i would be able to have a drink (out with my family somewhere, took the pill and didn't come home until an hour and a half later, or sometimes i thought i had alcohol in the house, but didn't so by the time i went to store, it was well beyond the hour since i took the pill. I feel SLOWLY that it's working in some ways, but i am still drinking at least one bottle of wine a night, more on the weekends:( thanks for the thoughts though and advice

Hi Elijones

No embarrassing incidents , fewer blackouts and no benders , sounds like great improvements have been made , Congrats

All the best

J.

PS I know all about the above 3 ,

Have you been logging your drinking?

Good point.