I have to say that I did not lose that anticipation particularly - I wish I had as it would have been so much easier for me. I looked forward to my first drink right up until I was 'cured'. I am not sure if I am in the minority here though - maybe others can chime in. And my intake, although going down initially (the honeymoon period) did go back up - never to pre Nal levels but went back up and stayed there until I was 'cured! I did however manage to have more AF days as time went by - eventually. I do not want you worrying that things will not work for you Valerie - so if you still feel the anticipation, so be it - we are all different and all respond in different ways. The end result is what we are all after and it doesn't matter how we get there....

I also did not ever notice anything to do with endorphins so again - do not worry about exercising - just live your life and apart from taking the nal at least an hour before drinking, try and forget about it - the nal is for life and if you start worrying about what you can and can't do because you have taken a nal, it will be a lot harder for you. Again, we are all different and others might have a different experience. I am not going to say that something will or will not happen to you.

It is sounding good so far and I am so happy that your SE's were minimal.

Hugs, Maggie

Thanks, Joe & Maggie! It helps to get your comments. Nice to know it's normal to still be anticipating that first drink.

Last night I drank again, opened that bottle of wine. I had three glasses (about 60% of the bottle). I definitely got tipsy. I can get tipsy fast, last night it started with the first glass, and by the second I was feeling that buzz. This is the place that tends to cross the line for me, I get that buzz and pour (and drink) the third glass to keep it going. From that point, my brain goes on autopilot and just keeps drinking to keep the buzz going, not recognizing when I get drunk. My husband and I went to bed after the 3rd drink, that's the only thing that stopped me from getting a 4th. I even planned to get a 4th, waiting until he fell asleep to get up and get it, but luckily the buzz wore off enough for me to be able to think about it and decide I didn't want it.

I feel a little rough this morning. Normally I don't think I would have a hangover from 3 glasses of wine, so maybe it's a bit of a nalover? It's not too bad though.

Last night does remind me why it's important to do this, keep up with TSM. I may only drink 3x a week, and mostly only a glass or two at a time, but for that once a week or every other week that I go farther and drink a lot more, I really hate the next day feeling like I was out of control with my drinking and feeling like crap physically to boot.

Yes, sounds like you got a mild nalover. Some get really nasty ones off of just a few drinks, seems to vary from the one to the other.

Was it red wine? Some have had luck switching to white.

Keep working on that awareness, that sounds like a good tool for you.

I'm a white wine drinker already. Maybe it would have been way worse with red wine. I was much better by later in the afternoon today.

End of week one! I'm not sure how to track my intake, there seem to be so many different unit measurements. The Canadian website counts drinks, which for wine is a 5 oz glass (150 ml). That I can count. This week I had 10 CAD units over 4 days, so 3 AF days.

Today was my 3rd AF in a row. I wasn't missing wine too much until I saw someone enjoying a glass in a bar today. Damn it looked good. I forgot about it after it was out of sight and I didn't want to drink tonight so I didn't but I know I will be going out tomorrow night and want some wine.

I know everyone seems to worry that they are part of the 22% that TSM won't work and you will tell me not to worry, but I'm reading some of the posts of others talking about how the naltrexone killed their buzz and that worries me because I'm not getting any reduction in the buzz. I'll try not to worry about it, but it's tough.

Yeah, just stick with that one measure throughout and that will be good.

Don't worry about the buzz, I didn't get any reduction in the buzz either. I really didn't notice much of any difference in the feeling of alch after starting TSM. Alcohol still stimulates other receptors that aren't covered by the Nal, so you may still feel the nice warm/fuzzy/buzzy feeling, but the important point here is that your brain is starting to forget the two are connected. Part of the work that Nal does happens in a part of the brain that has no feelings at all. It just remembers how to compel you to go get the vino and get it going down your throat, by giving you a little reward-squirt of dopamine along each step of the way.

The clock strikes 5 and you think a glass of wine would be nice (squirt), you get close to home and see the street that the store is on (squirt), you see the store (squirt), you go into the store (squirt), you go down the wine aisle (squirt), get that bottle in your hand, checkout, get home, (squirt),(squirt),(squirt). Pull the cork, pour a glass, have a sip, (squirt), (squirt), (SQUIRRRTTT!). Nucleus Accumbens gets a nice big endorphin hit, which reinforces "alch = pleasure" yet again, widening that neural pathway and making it stronger. Except if you take Nal per TSM, then your brain doesn't get that endorphin reward and that pathway begins to wither until it eventually it becomes mostly silent. At that point you're cured and you no longer have cravings.

So no, you might not feel any difference either. But you're already getting the effect, which is a good confirmation that the Nal is working for you.

Damn, I hope you are right, Joe because I'm thinking my experiences with nal are just weird, which worries me.

It's only been a week, but I'm still longing for that drink. When the wine is put in front of me, it seems to smell or taste off - not quite normal. But then I seem to start getting a buzz *really* quickly. Like literally after 3-4 sips, less than 2 oz of wine. Weird. Anyway, I know the protocol and I'm keeping to it. At this point, I've got nothing to lose so might as well keep doing the nal and TSM and if it works, great. If it doesn't, I'm in the same place as when I started, no harm, no foul.

Now that you mention it, the beer did taste funny more than a few times, but I always felt the same effect from it.

And I had an AF yesterday. The old neon beer sign in my head flickered on and off weakly, just couldn't get going. I even goaded it by trying to think about beer, looked at the cans, it just didn't mean anything to me. Didn't get nervous about it at all. Last one was over a month ago, but I sort of forced that because I was going to the dentist. This one felt pretty natural.

That's pretty awesome, Joe! Congrats on your AF day, you must be happy to see the results really kicking in like that.

I had a fairly interesting experience myself yesterday. It's a long holiday weekend here in Canada and where I am it was a beautiful day. I met some friends on an outdoor patio for drinks and dinner. It was hot enough that I opted for a hard cider instead of wine and normally I just drink that like pop, it goes down too easily. This time the drink lasted all the way to the end of dinner with no effort to ration it or prolong it on my part. Pretty cool!

Calculating drinks to date this week (4 days), I don't usually drink mid-week but keeping it open just in case.

Wk 2 - 8 CAD drinks, 1 AF day

That's great, Valerie! Well within low-risk drinking limits! Keep it going!