I have been on TSM for 23 months starting Oct 14th 2014 sticking to the Golden Rule at all times except for the 3 months (Jan-March 2016) since my Nal order never arrived before I went for my winter holiday to Mexico (I'm sure that set me back). Maybe I cannot tell the difference of wanting a drink or not thinking about a drink as I it seems everything is the same to me as pre-TSM? I think most people have Aha or Lightbulb moments or even diminished thoughts of drinking alcohol????
I have been taking 50 mg until just lately when I upped it to 75 mg for 5 days and now the last 3 days at 100 mg.
Please, Please for any newbies reading this do not get discouraged from my experience as I only see positive results from weeks, months or even years of TSM from pretty much 99.9% of people here and the 5% of others just quit.
I think I am the one that it may not work for but will never give up as it is my ONLY hope. Now starting on my 2nd bottle of wine now,ughhh!
Nal On!

Cheeto -

So, at 100mg, you're still not noticing any difference? Where are you getting your Nal?

Hang in there, girl! You'll get there one way or the other! Talk to us.

I am getting it from River Pharmacy. Think I will take 100 mg and wait 2 hours now!

Hmmm

Isn't real success with TSM learning to change your life choices and behavior

Sovereignty over yourself and becoming conscious will only come when you QUIT drinking to excess.

Once that sinks in, life becomes exponentially better since you're not drinking it away.

It will never happen if you keep drinking as usual and expecting a pill to magically change your life.

While you may be like Maggie and it will simply take a lot of time, the thing that gets me is that you never really saw any solid drinking reduction from Nal, but perhaps moving to 100mg will make a difference. My guess is that you'll know pretty soon.

I had an email exchange with Dr. Manak a few weeks ago, sounds like they'd been away for a bit. Did you ever make contact with her?

Guapo brings up a good point, but still, I mainly see that when people start Nal, they notice a difference and/or they get an initial solid drop in drinking. I don't recall you ever getting a confirmation like that. That being said, I'm a computer tech, not any kind of doctor at all.

Whichever way this goes, Cheeto, please stick with us. I know you have your heart in this effort and I know you're going to get there whether it's TSM or whatever. There IS something out there that's a good fit for you.

Cheeto,

My hearts goes out to you, for it has to be frustrating.

Did you notice a difference from taking those 3 months off and once you started again...any difference at all? Did you feel a rush while off of nal? Did you drink more than usual? And once back on it did you notice how flat that first drink was?

My experience has been that once I consume pass a certain amount the nal stops working, so maybe that is what is happening to you. If that is the case upping your dose could help.

Someone said that splitting the pill helps. I did notice a difference when I tried it, so maybe give that a try.

Have you reached out to JoAnna again? She can be very helpful. Fiddleplayer reached out to C-3 and they helped him a lot. He was getting frustrated about his progress (he has been at this for over a year), but with the help of Claudia realized that he was making progress and she had helpful suggestion. It is free and so what do you have to lose?

It is a shame that Selincro isn't offered in Canada, for it may be what you need. Maybe ask C-3 if they know of any drug studies in Canada that may be going on, for it has to be coming to Canada or the US soon.

Keep in touch

Jaba

Thanks Joe & Jaba for the support.

I wrote this on my progress page so just sharing again:

I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch but good news as I upped my dose to 100 mg on Thursday and did not drink at all after taking it that day. Took 100 mg again on Friday & Saturday and kind of drank as normal then last night my 4th night on 100 mg I stopped after 1 1/2 glasses of wine. I am staying on this course of 100 mg in hopes I can make my way to the Cured List.
Nal ON!!!

Most excellent, Cheeto! I hope that trend continues, for sure! Is that the first time in a long while that you've been able to stop at 2 or so?

Keep us filled in

Yes, will keep y'all updated!

I'm interested in why TSM doesn't work for some. My question for you cheeto is what kind of drinker were you prior to starting TSM? Do you have a family history of alcoholism? Was the concept of 'the chase' a problem with you prior to TSM?

Have you noticed at least anything once you started TSM?

My own personal hypothesis is this and I can really only speak based on my own experience. First of all while I agree with what guappo says for the most part I have to disagree with one thing and that is in my case Naltrexone was indeed a magic pill. From the very first dose of it 14 months ago I not once ever went back, not even close, to the levels of drinking that I had before. I went from 15 drinks a night down to 4 literally over night.

That brings me to my personal hypotheses which is that TSM is most effective for alcoholics who suffer from the rat lever pulling opiodergic system 'chase.' I also believe that family history has a lot to do with it because a family history is proof that you have the biologic predisposition for alcoholism.

So in other words take this for example. A person with no family history of alcoholism starts to drink some time in thier 20's like a normal person. Then say they fall in with the wrong crowd and start hanging out with a bunch of alcoholics, perhaps even marry one and so thier drinking excallates to a point where they start having problems. Only the difference is that this person's alcoholism is sort of self induced. It was never something that was granted at birth. And so as such this person has developed a drinking problem on a more psycological level rather then a base physical-biological-genetic level and the Naltrexone will not work.

Anyway I'm just thinking out loud... I don't know that this is your case cheeto and don't mean to imply that it is, I just have my own untested ideas as to why it might not work for some people.