Hello everybody,

I am Daniel from Germany and have started with the the Sinclair Method 3 days ago.
I am 37 years old and have been drinking very regularly for + - 20 years.

In the past I've gone through a total abstinence period of roughly 2 1/2 Years before relapsing.

We get very generous help from public healthcare over here. My abstinence period started after a 3 month addiction clinic programme. Unfortunately several very stressful events both in my personal and professional life led me to drink again.

The approach to alcoholism in clinics is very conservative with mostly 100% abstinence with some experimental "controlled" drinking programs. There are support groups but they cater for an older generation 50,60 + and it's hard to relate with totally different life conditions.
AA is not very popular due to the "religious approach" which many people find very offsetting.

Recently Baclofene has gained some notoriety. I have tried it without success.

It has now been 2 + years I have been drinking regularly again during which time I have admitted myself to hospitals for Detox at least 4 times not counting the many instances i went cold turkey.

My regular drink would be 3/4 of a bottle of wine plus a Pint of beer. During weekends that could go up to 1 to 2 bottles of hard liquor plus beer and always in a very short time frame. I often tried to drink less and also managed to be AF for a couple of weekends.

The instances where I drank for a week straight and couldn't remember what I had done that time were getting more. Only the fact that I can work from home quite often saved me from loosing my Job.

My last drinking episode really brought me close to being suicidal when I realized, that after 4 Bottles of Wine and other drinks in a matter of 2-3 ours did not even give me the longed for peace of mind anymore. I don't know what would have happened if I had more drinks at hand at the time. I lost all inhibition. It was scary and sad.


I have seen a wonderful documentary about the life story of a canadian alcoholic and his path to recovery where I first heard of Naltrexone.

Naltrexone and especially the Sinclair Method are almost unknown here and the medical field seems very reluctant to be open minded about it.

After some research and getting to know the Sinclair method I approached my Doctor to get a prescription but he flatly refused to prescribe unless I would follow a traditional rehab/Detox/ Counseling route first and being 100% sober.


I then went to see a young Doctor specializing in Drug Addictions (Methadone substitution etc). He
knew about Naltrexone but not it's use for curing alcohol addiction.
I am so happy to have him and I will give him regular updates on my progress since he may consider it for other patients.


During the last 2 days I drank max a pint of beer and really had to force myself to take a sip of expensive wine which I have bought to "test" me. I can also not gulp down my beer as fast as before which is incredible.


I will update on my progress.

Thank you all for reading and again thank you for providing this wonderful Forum

Greetings

Daniel

Welcome to you Daniel and thanks for the great post!

Initial results with TSM can be quite dramatic, but know that the typical rhythm with TSM is an initial drop, followed by a rebound in drinking levels, followed by a further drop, followed by a lesser rebound and so on, so don't be disappointed if your drinking climbs back up again because it's completely normal for that to happen.

You may also want to have a look at the community over at http://optionssavelives.freeforums.net/ as it's more lively over there and this board had been down for weeks at a time in the past.

That being said, it looks like your first experience with TSM is quite good indeed!