Ok. I read that you've been in and out of AA and have 12 step calls on your heels so it's understandable that you would be suspicious and a maybe little testy. I was skeptical of this site at first too. and to compound that, you are new to the internet forum thingy. lurking is just an internet term. I lurk forums all the time, without lurkers, this site wouldn't grow. I am looking at the bottom left of the page when I scroll down and I see luna and 2 unregistered guests lurking right now. Hi luna. and welcome guests. I don't think Houtx meant to accuse you of being drunk. Everybody takes each other's word here and anyway this isn't AA and nobody cares if anybody's drunk. I posted drunk all the time at first (not that I think you are, or that that matters to me). check out benTSM's posts on youtube here
http://www.youtube.com/user/NaltrexoneN ... fMWwp9etqE they're fun to watch and he actually has documented his journey on video and was drunk in a couple of them early on, so please don't feel like this is some AA witch hunt, and feel free to post in any condition and don't worry too much about going off topic in your weekly progress thread or anywhere else. That last sentence leads me to this:
we had an off topic discussion the other day in the "Naltrexone in the news" section under the thread about the newsweek article. We talked about about why eskapa doesn't answer questions anymore, and many are frustrated with that. He told me in an email that he feels the board has too much mis-information. Maybe it does, but it's just humans takling to each other, and it's helped me greatly. Just know that neither Eskapa nor Sinclair has anything to do with running the board, It is simply a support forum made by TSM patients, for TSM patients. We basically share our experiences and have found a lot of things that aren't in the book, like TMS taking longer than 3-4 months for many of us, lots of people disagree with the title and the word cure etc. another reason why I personally think Eskapa has stopped posting is the fact that we sometimes aid each other in ordering Nal from overseas without a prescrit. Seems to me like it is in the best interest of TSM and Eskapa for him to distance himself from this activity. His cred in the Med community is important to TSM, and God knows the establishment doesn't want any new ideas, especially ones that challenge their "abstinence only or death" mentality, or guilt trips. I think he may just be cautious. Plus, he's a scientist not a drinker, and scientists are interested in clinical trials, not our personal anecdotes. this is not any type of scientific trial, just people shooting the **** about TSM and whatever else they feel like talking about. That's my take on it. one thing that made me less skeptical about the board at first was the fact that people like houtx, for which TSM didn't work, are welcome to post about how it didn't work here, and they can post about their efforts with other methods as well, so the info is not filtered to make TSM seem infallible. Try posting about tSM on soberrecovery.com. they shut us down! and swiftly. I was banned for it.
I started a thread about having a "sticky" (a thread that sticks at the top of the forum for all to see) with TSM terms in it for newcomers. hopefully we can get that done, but the admin is a busy person, as are all the other cured folks, which is why they sort of stop posting so much after putting themselves on the list. they say life grabs them and they go out and live normal, full lives and don't think about AL (alcohol) much. or TSM for that matter. I now understand this after seeing glimpses myself.
A few terms we use around here:
AF=alcohol free
AU=australian units
UK=british units
extinction burst: a spike in numbers, thought to be a good sign of the brain trying to get the reward it once knew. (often compared to a rat hitting a lever for a reward more rapidly after the reward is removed in a desparate attempt to find gratification, sometimes just before extinction occurs.)
I can't think of any more but feel free to send me a personal message with any questions. (under every post there is a PM button that allows you to do this) Or, of course you can ask them here in the threads. Just remember there is no official TSM authority here. Yes, you can just take the pill and go about your business. We choose to come here for the support and shared knowledge. and I like the people too.
As for the AA people and explaining this to folks, that's a tough one. AA people generally want this to fail, as they believe alcoholics are insane and have a spiritual malady, which has been disproven. It's a depressing losing battle with religious zealots. I told them what I was doing, then I stopped bothering with it except for offering the TSM option to relapsers. on the bright side: my former sponsor is about to start TSM. on the family thing, geez I wish I could give advice. hopefully TSM will work for you. If it does, they'll see a difference, but be ready to spend 6 months or a year on this, but you should gain more control from the start. good luck on this front, maybe just stop argueing or explaining it to them? really can't say.
I hope I didn't come off as bossy in your progress thres by stating matter of factly "just write down the numbers and post em" or whatever I said. Tone of voice doesnt happen in intrawebs land and it's easy to misunderstand. I definitely wasn't tryig to tell you what to do. You definitely don't have to come here or do any of this to practice tSM. hope to see you around tho. peace
P.S. you'll also find joe12pack annoyingly long-winded and full of useless advice and smartass remarks about AA, he is not an authority or a doctor, he is passing along information he found helpful. Info that others have passed on to him mostly.