Hi Everyone,

Not been here for a while as things have been going very well, with the odd strange moment however and some definate plateaus when nothing much seems to be moving, but it generally does again soon.

I've been reading some people saying a big change happened after doing something - one person upped to 100mg a day, another person limited themselves to a certain amount of wine only.

I was wondering - have people on here noticed other transformational moments like this? Any forced changes that cause TSM to kick in further? I'd be really interested to hear and to try some to move to the next stage hopefully.

Thanks all,

Tish

Tish,

I would have to say for me it was a mind thing and habit.

I had to force my intake down (I had enough of the nal overs), I waited longer than 60 minutes, and I had to stop myself form drinking at a certain time of the day (6pm need to drink, wait until 7pm). Shortly after doing those things I realized I could do an AF day (about 12 weeks in). It was like a switch was flipped, but it could have been the amount of time on the nal.

Everyone is different, and this is such a personal thing. What works for me may not work for you or anyone else.

How long have you been doing this? Are your AF days difficult? Are you still thinking about that first drink? Is alcohol on your thoughts at certain places or times?

Changes that happen are subtle (at least they were for me) and I had to challenge myself instead of going with the flow.

Jaba

Hi Jaba,

That's really interesting, I think I've known for a while now that now is the time that I need to use a bit of will power to move forwards instead of expecting magic. What TSM has given me is taking me back from a horrible brink and stopping a progressive disease (if you want to call it disease, I'm not sure if I do though, maybe condition?) I was getting worse, I'm now getting better, that's a bit of a miracle. But I need to do my own work so was wondering what the best way to do that was - your ideas are good. AF days are pretty rare if I'm honest so I'm not there yet at all, but the awful, disaster days are gone, and that's without trying. Imagine if you tried a bit - that's my New Year Resolution for sure....

Tish,

Slow down your drinking, take sip instead of gulps. I have found drinking water in between sips helps, and drinking water before starting with the alcohol helps (I could down a glass of wine like it was water because I was thirsty). Try to drink those first 2 drinks as slow as possible, and listen to your brain.

Jaba

Good advice, I'll take it. It wouldn't have been possible before TSM, I hope it is now....

Tish -

I've seen a number of posts where people just started trying to create more elbow room with regards to their drinking, maybe they set a limit or tried to force an extra AF day or just tried disrupting their usual habit. I for instance, stopped taking my beer with me when I went out for a smoke, as I noticed I was knocking back about 1/2 a pint per smoke. That made a difference right there. You've likely got something similar going, keep an eye out for when your drink starts disappearing faster than other times and do something to bust up that routine. Sounds like you're at the point where you're ready to try "pushing back".

I don't have the benefit of Naltrexone as it's still on order, but I've started a modified version of the HAMS Taper:

http://www.hamsnetwork.org/taper/

In my case, I started from a high of 9 pints/day and started cutting back 1/2 pint per day. I'm pretty much on plan and will cut back to 3 pints total this evening, I may hold that for another day and then drop it down to 2.5.

So, give this or that a try to see if the Nal is making you stronger in a way that you didn't expect. Flex your muscles and see if you've got more latitude than you thought!

Thanks for that advice, yes, it's time, TSM has done it's magic, it's unreasonable to expect to get to the next stage without some will power or elbows as you say, so I think I will adopt a few new strategies to get there, I think I understand that the magic is there, but expecting to wake up one day and say - hey, that's it, I'll never drink again is unlikely without some extra work, although it does look like some people did, after a while have unexpected breakthroughs out of nowhere - interesting also. Thank you!

What got me to quit drinking completely after around 4 months or so was wondering what it would feel like to get my endorphins unblocked. My drinking was way down, but I wasn't having as much fun (of course we are all experts at being able to completely erase from memory all the un-fun parts of drinking). Any way, -that was my motivation. I think I went 7 months without a drink. Though truthfully I never noticed a difference, blocked or unblocked. The un-fun wasn't my lack of endorphins, -it was learning to live without my best friend. That takes awhile and the void must be filled.

Now I just take a pill every day with my other daily meds, never thinking much about it. And the result is I never ever drink more than 2 or 3, -no will power required.

what were some of the things ppl on this thread replaced drinking with on AF days? did you have to come up with a plan, to stick to it and not drink as usual?

Well, it's probably pretty simple: Either something you once loved to do but drinking got in the way. Or something you always wanted to do, but drinking got in the way. It could be as complicated as going back to graduate school, as simple as returning to reading, or as esoteric as studying the mating habits of butterflies (caterpillars?!). No one can help you with that one. You're you and we're not!