I'm so sorry to post this question here but I didnt know how else to ask the cured people a question.

Question is, do all of you have sweet tooths? I dont have one at all (I hardly ever eat chocolate etc), and I have read that not having a sweet tooth is an indication that TSM wont work for you, and I dont want to start on the month long journey if there is a strong indication that I will be the 1 out of 10 people who it doesnt work for.

Thanks for your replies and sorry again if this was an inappropriate place to post (though I have also posted the same question in the Questions forum). I am just desperate for the opinion of people who have been cured.

I hope it is appropriate to answer your question on this forum but it also does apply to the subject at hand. G4M and I have been on this journey together now from day one (our day one) and have shared our ups and downs.

Rest assured I do not have a sweet tooth and never have had one, but I can tell you it TSM is working for both G4M and myself. I have been doing a little better than G4M and am very very close to saying that I am cured, although I am a little bit hesitant in saying I am cured G4M has indicated she believes that I am.

Of course everyone's circumstances are different and I want to let everyone of G4M's friends know that I believe she is doing very well but due to her circumstances G4M's journey will be a little longer and a little harder but I know that she will succeed and be cured. It will just take a little longer for her but I have absolutely no doubts that she will succeed.

For those of you that miss G4M's post and comments, she still has her nose to the grindstone working on her book which is nearing completions. Within a week or two I can definitely say that you will not be able to get her off her (literally) horse.

Sorry for the long winded post but I wanted to let everyone know that all is well and getting better everyday.

I did not have a sweet tooth before I started TSM, but I do now for certain foods. Instead of reaching for any alcohol now, I have filled that void with Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream. It is absolutely delicious! To compare it to any drink I could enjoy now would be no contest; it would be the ice cream every time. Note though, on nights that I do decide to take Naltraxone and imbibe, I will not have anything sweet at all. To me, they do not mix.

I have not heard of a desire for sweets to be a prerequisite for TSM treatment, although it will be interesting for us to gather data on this possible phenomenon.

Bob

Thanks for your responses guys.

I think that people like me, who are watching your progress with great admiration (and a little bit of envy) will always have the feeling of "yeah, but will I be one of the poor sods who it doesnt work for".

I think that there are enough of you now to prove that TSM does in fact work. But there also enough of you to start perhaps isolating some factors which would suggest that TSM may not work for a specific individual. One such factor may be the sweet tooth thing.

Someone in the MWO forum posted a link to this article: Sweet tooth test 'may help prevent alcohol problems' - Telegraph
which indicates a statistical correlation between alcoholism and having a sweet tooth. So it would then also make sense that people with sweet tooth-ism are "typical" alcoholics, and TSM works best with typical alcoholics.

Anyway, WTE, in short, I think it would be a very good topic for a poll - though responders should be limited to people who are cured or feel they are very close to being cured. Where should such a poll be posted? Would you like to start it?

Thanks all.

Hey Zman --I want to copy and paste here the response I posted to you on MyWayOut. It is possible to make too much of it.
Here's my MWO post in relevant part:
Zman -- Whoa there!! Please simmer down!!!! Please get past the sweet tooth thing!!! It's a canard, and I think you're making waaayyyy too big a deal of it. People easily misunderstand stuff (just look at how I mangled what Anna was trying to say in her post) and it is just "out there" for you to start guessing at the odds going down drastically due to a sweet tooth. Please get a perspective on this. Really! I pop in here to my old MWO home when I can, and from what I can recall your posts are calm and thoughtful.

People are already trying to reassure you in your posts about this at our TSM bb that many of us do have a sweet tooth and we are doing just fine on TSM.

Try to focus instead on this: Throwing out the few who, for reasons those of us doing this cannot comprehend, stop taking naltrexone, there is a phenomenal 90 % of people for whom TSM should work, and throwing the quitters back in, an 80% actual success rate!! And unlike other methods (except now baclofen maybe), studies show continued improvement as far out as three years, whereas other treatment method are measured by how many are left standing (i.e. not relapsed) after that time, even after abysmal initial success rates. Grab those odds and go. Be prepared, however, that a few of us, including the cured, have developed a penchant for Ben & Jerry's. I know Bob goes for Cherry Garcia but I get an occasional hankering for Stephen Colbert Americone Dream.

I started on January 13 but got critically ill from an intestinal infection and had to spend several weeks on opiate pain meds after two surgeries. But after about 18 weeks total time on TSM I'm doing great and well on my way -- down to about 3 a night with no effort from a high of up to 12+. You can see my story in detail on the TSM board. If you check over there, the non-sweet-tooth stories are piling up.

Seriously, I know it can seem like a scary proposition to commit to a treatment that does not produce meaningful measurable results for several weeks. It's very much like statin cholesterol meds: You can't feel them working day to day, but after a few weeks your numbers are way down and it's life saving.

What's the down side?

Best, Lena

Poll: Lena: little to no sweet tooth TSM; no family history of alcoholism

Poll for me: NO sweet tooth. Family history - all but one in my immediate family (parents and siblings) are/were either alcoholics or problem drinkers

We all have thought this at one time or another. I'm not sure how we could tell from our group here who TSM doesn't work for. I suspect that if TSM doesn't work for a person, we'd just stop hearing from them.

Remember about 10% of the 22% that did not report success in the clinical trials simply quite taking Naltrexone. It did not work on only 12% of the test subjects. I have no idea why it didn't work, nor can I recall a discussion on here clarifying this.

Q

Hi ZMan...I am cured. I have always had a sweet tooth and a family history of alcoholism...on both maternal & paternal sides as well as my siblings.

I did not read the MWO posts yet and hopefully I have not misunderstood this post. From my own reading on alcoholism most alcoholics are hypoglycemic. Whether they drink alcohol to satisfy the craving for sugar or the alcohol itself causes hypoglycemia I don’t know. Most of us need sweets to jack up our blood sugar and temporarily relieve tiredness...then we crash back down and a little cycle begins.

I definitely was hypoglycemic…and ended up totally cutting out all sweets except alcohol and my addiction to them slowly went away. Interestingly enough (well – it’s interesting to me : )) I only looked into the link between alcohol and sweets after my 3rd pregnancy which was 4 years ago. With my last 2 pregnancies as I gave up my nightly wine, I started eating popsicles at night. I would eat 10-12 of them each night…as soon as I had the babies and resumed the wine, the popsicle addiction went away. (Because I had my sugar intake again from the wine). I wonder if others on the site actually do have a sweet tooth but have not cut down their alcohol intake enough to see if they start eating chocolate or some other sweet replacement more. I have noticed since being ‘cured’ that my craving for sweets is returning….maybe I’m just looking for another form of a treat, not sure yet, but I have been sneaking chocolate ice cream a lot lately.

Interesting question overall but I sincerely doubt a sweet tooth has any affect whatsoever on your outcome – if anything TSM may just help those of us who do have an affinity to eat sweets to extinguish that behavior as well if we take our Nal and eat chocolate (or popsicles..) along with the alcohol.

Take the chance & take your Nal – we are all very lucky to have been given this chance and there are more reasons to be hopeful than fearful.

I found this whole poll and thread very interesting but not as a guide for Zman's choice ( as said ) .
Now on reflection I'm seeing how sugar has had more of a role and especially on non alc nights , so this is maybe a good sign . Happy's points are very to the point on sugar needs for alky . I always thought a sweet tooth person was really quite extreme and think of my late father in law whose cause of death was owing to loving sweets and chocolate . I also know he took secret swigs in the garage because he'd had too much pressure for drinking openly in earlier times , so I think
he swithced over to from alc to sweets and topped up on the swigs .
I wouldn't always take an ice cream over a beer but it has been my preferred choice a few times of late , so this is all very revealing . Glad it came up .
One quality icecream in the park last week was quite orgasmic ,( pardon my french .)