Ok...Ive been on Nal 5 weeks...at beach for Spring Break. Noticeable difference in my drinking amount and desire...

ok....for the questions...

I drank a few beers tonight and felt so sick that I spent the next 15 minutes dry heaving in the bathroom. I noticed before I got sick that I felt bloated and the beer was beginning to taste absolutely terrible. Now I have no desire what so ever to smell beer... has anyone else gotten sick like this....just trying to figure out if it is the Nal working or if I just spent too much time on the beach.

Hi, no I have never had that happen to me. Maybe it was the sun, and something you ate? Hope you are feeling better.

I've had a similar experience with Nal, but not as bad as you describe. This is similar to the side-effects I noticed during the first week taking Nal.

I doubt it is that uncommon for side-effects to come and go. Then again, maybe you just had a touch of the flu or something.

Being nauseous isn't how Nal is supposed to work to keep us from drinking.

Nal doesn't work that way, but when I went through Aversion Therapy (AT), that's exactly how you feel. With AT you take Ipecac then ten minutes later drink. You the vomit everything back out. After 3 hours or so of recovering, you repeat. Every 2 days you do this with a rest day in between for almost 2 weeks using every imaginable alcoholic beverage but always starting with your favorite one.. And believe me, you need that rest day!

I did that method back in November 2008. I can't drink anything other than Guinness Stout for some oddball reason I can't figure out, without getting a gag reflex. It's quite effective. Unfortunately, there is still an alcohol craving lurking back there that makes you try to undo the AT.

So consider your experience a blessing and hope it stays with you. If you want to continue TSM, switch to a different beverage if you can and continue until the cravings finally disappear.

Bob

SG- I haven't actually had the heaving you talk off but I have had many times that the beer begins to taste bad- and I think if I forced myself to drink it, it could lead to me being sick. It doesn't happen every time but it does happen quite a lot. Some of those times, I have switched to cider, which is much more palatable than the beer. I wonder if it is a beer thing?

Bob, can I ask where (generally is okay) you did AT? I was considering that before I found TSM.

switched to different kind of beer...see if that helps...but am noticing that it isn't nearly as exciting for me....thank God...going on a cruise in a week...can't afford $7.00 a beer at my pre-sinclair amount of 12-15 a day....holy crap....

I took the following article with the specifics of the therapy to my psychiatrist and psychologist for their "blessing" prior to self-administration with my wife supervising so that the full method would be followed: http://www.modern-psychiatry.com/aversion_therapy.htm

It works extremely well but is right up there with the most unpleasant things I have ever done in my 50+ year life. It essentially took 4 weeks of my life away; the almost 2 week treatment, followed by 2 weeks of gaining strength back from the treatment. I was completely abstinent for two months following the treatment, then began experimenting to see if it still was working. Since AT has you try all types of alcoholic beverages, but always starting with your Drink of Choice (DOC), popular beers were unbearable since they were my DOC.

My main DOC was Budweiser lager. I tried several times after 2 months to drink Budweiser, but was unable to, due to a nausea reaction, I tasted tequila, since I didn't use that drink in my AT treatment and never drank it anyway, but the tequila gave me the same nausea response. The problem now was that I couldn't find anything to satisfy my growing craving and not being able to get by the nausea response. I finally stumbled on Guinness Stout which had a very different taste than most beers and I didn't get my nausea response. I then started it drinking it moderately, but you know the rest of the story; it got out of control within 2 weeks.

In early February 2009, I started another AT treatment using Guinness Stout as my DOC, but I was unable to get past part 1 of the treatment because my job responsibilities didn't allow me another 4 weeks. Besides, I had been warned that although AT may ruin it for most drinks, there are so many, that unless the craving is gone, I may keep looking for a way to sabotage it. So I looked for another treatment that might treat cravings and stumbled on TSM.

Bob