Hey everyone,

I have ordered the book, have my pills and have done a lot of research, but there is one (ok not one but one subject ha ha) question that I seem to not be able to find a answer to. I have read that TSM has a 78% success rate, but I do not fully understand what that means. What is success and what is the failure? I would succeed if I drink only so much a week or year? Is failure that your drinking never changed or does it mean it had no effect on the person. How would someone know when it was or was not working? The first day or do you need to do this for months to find out. After all the research I have done I have decided to go back to drinking (50 days sober) to finally tap this out of my life, but also want to know if I fall in the 78% side or the 22% side. The thought of not thinking about drinking and not hanging around AA meeting talking about drinking sounds like a much better life.

First, stay sober until you have the pills and begin medicated!

Anyway, success means craving and compulsion free - no more unending hunger. It's a deaddicted brain and therein your thought processes have changed otherwise known as indifference. This can take anywhere from 4mo - 1year. As far as the percentages and specifically those who are unsuccessful if I recall 10% had a different biological make-up. They had no family history of alcoholism and disliked sweet solutions. The other 12% had compliance issues, unending side effects, things of that nature.

Be aware too that there is a mindfulness component to this not addressed in the book. The other forum (optionssavelives) focuses on this so I would suggest joining there as well.

Let me know when you've seen this and I'll delete the link affecting the formatting.

Perfect.. Thanks for the answer.. It seems pretty clear. I will also join the other forum.

Glen

Bardo said it perfectly. But I will add this. Success is being able to have a drink and not worry that the next thing you remember is waking up in the morning having no clue how you got there After almost a year on NAL I still drink but not daily - I call that a success. I don't crave a drink from the moment I get up - that is a success. I don't drive drunk - big success. And I could add a whole bunch of successes but each person is different in their goals and how they gauge success.

Best of luck

When you say "indifference" would that be like going to lunch, having say a soft drink, the waiter asks if you want more and you say "I guess" but you you could have taken it or not? I guess when I think about drinking alcohol and the bartender asks me if I want another it is a different mind set then the waiter asking if I want a refill of a soft drink. With a soft drink I am enjoying the drink/taste with alcohol it is about taste, but mostly about the buzz/stress release. I would LOVE to have that same reaction to alcohol that I do to a soft drink!

Hi Glenn

I think that with TSM there are very different levels of 'success' and you need to go into it realistically and with open eyes. I say this, because some people respond really quickly and experience indifference to alcohol within months; some take up to a year and then suddenly simply lose interest in alcohol and give up drinking altogether. I consider myself one of the late responders and I certainly don't consider myself 'cured' yet. I have been totally compliant with TSM for 18 months now. However, my life is 100% better than prior to TSM and trying to sum up this is why:

Before TSM it was impossible for me to have an AF day. I tried alcohol counselling, took Campral and Antabuse (which I stupidly took risks with because I craved a drink so much I risked drinking whilst taking it several times and made myself really ill. Even when drinking heavily, I had managed to impose 'some' control by never allowing myself to drink before 4pm every day. However, the minute I woke in the morning, all I could think about was that first drink. I would plan my life around it. I would turn down invitations to go out with friends in the evening because it would interfere with my drinking. In fact, I remember going to the cinema with my husband and buying miniature wine bottles to keep in my hand bag and sneak to the toilets to drink throughout the evening.

Now - I rarely think about drinking during the day. If I do decide to have wine, then it's normally something I decide in the evening after work when I'm shopping for dinner. I still have some days when the urge to drink is quite strong, but it certainly isn't overwhelming. I can now easily have four or five AF days a week. If I'm invited out with friends, I now feel happy to accept and have that as an AF day. I still do drink too much (probably a whole bottle of wine) on the days I do chose to drink, but I never feel 'drunk' out of control and rarely have black outs any more.

As I've said - I don't consider myself 'cured' because I still feel that I have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol and I don't yet feel ready to happily give it up like so many other 'cured' people. However, if I compare my life now to how it was 18 months ago, I don't look back and would definately recommend TSM to anyone struggling with alcohol addiction.

Good luck - and remember to be compliant (1 pill, 1 hour prior to drinking and never be tempted to drink without it!)

As Snapdragon said, we are all different and have varying degrees of 'cure'. My aim was to drink like a 'normal' person (whatever that is), and although it took me 11 months to be 'cured', I now do not want to drink at all - ironic really that now I can have one if I want one, I just do not want one. So it really is different for all of us. Ocean was cured pretty much immediately - incredible - I thought it was never going to happen for me. The main thing is that you have to always follow the Golden Rule - take the Nal at least an hour before you drink EVERY time. Eventually, you will get there .....

Hugs, Maggie

I think Bardo and Snap summed it up nicely. And Snap.. Congrats on your success. I know exactly what you mean about sneaking in bottles to the movies LOL! My airplane bottle of choice was vodka though, a much stronger punch. For me success came quickly. I used to hide bottles all over the house and when I went to the fridge for a beer I'd often pound down one of the cheap ones and then grab a good one and sip it so I looked like a normal person. Since the very first day I started TSM I have never not once hidden a bottle or had the desire to do so. That is a huge measure of success. So you kind of have to set your own realistic goals or at least start to notice things that are different and chalk that up to success.

I still drink, which would be considered and AA failure, and sometimes I even drink too much but I don't drink 15 beers, sneak a few shots of vodka, and have a few glasses of wine with dinner anymore.

On a side not I am always interested in the experience of people who have been sober and then start TSM. As you know from reading the books it's recommended that you stay sober if you are sober but if you cannot then there is hope and in the far majority of people who adhere to the golden rule it works. Some get there slower then others but for most it makes a big difference. The thing that interests me about you, the OP, is that after 50 days you are no doubt suffering from alcohol deprivation syndrome and I wonder what jumping right into TSM will be like as opposed to for example going back to drink for a few weeks then trying it.

In any case I wish you the best of luck and keep us posted.

I too snuck beer into movies. 2 hours was a long time to be in there! needless to say, it never occurs to me anymore. TSM works....