Virgil - We're at the same point in our recovery and we are both benzo users, so we have a lot in common. It will be fascinating as we progress, to see where each of us reached that "break point" where pharmacological extinction occurs. It will leave a road map for those who follow us. And I can picture us in the near-future as "cheerleaders" recalling this period of time and reminding those new ones to wait it out and let the Naltrexone do its job. Kinda like SpringerRider has done, but we will do it for the Benzo Bunch!

Bob

Thanks everyone!

You people are the tops! I couldn't wish for better support than that which you have all displayed in your kind words above.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

All the best to each and everyone of you.

V.

Hi Folks!

Here we go again. I've now completed four months on the Sinclair Method and still no progress. I just hope that my liver is weathering the storm. I had blood tests a couple of days ago (including liver function tests) but I haven't got the results back yet. Fingers crossed.

That's it.

V.

Hi Folks,

I've just completed week 17 on TSM and my intake for that week was down by 19% when compared with week 16. This is the first time I have seen any change since starting TSM, as many members will be aware. I have not bothered to graphically represent my consumption to date as it would have been a horizontal line running parallel to the x-axis! Don't need Excel to show that. My consumption last week was just 89 units instead of the 100 units, which seemed to have me in its stranglehold for so long.

So, have I been doing anything different? Well, I have maintained a degree of self-control but not much. I've never put myself into a situation where I was craving alcohol. My external circumstances are the same. I'm home-alone during week days until approx. 6:00 pm when my wife returns from work. At the weekend, we share time together - usually gardening.

I'm still tapering off clonazepam and I take the occasional zopiclone to help me sleep. I will not be clear off clonazepam until September (this year!).

Incidentally, I got my liver function test (LFT) results back a few days ago and, although my Gamma GT is high, all the actual LFT results are within safe limits. I'm very pleased with this, needless to say.

So, who knows? Perhaps something is beginning to happen with TSM. It certainly looks that way. It's only just starting to sink in and inside me, I'm cautiously optimistic. I really hope this trend continues. Either way, it's given me renewed hope at a time when I so desperately need it. And hope is everything.

I would like to thank all those that have supported me (you know who you are) throughout the last few weeks when things have been tough. You've helped to keep me going.

All the very best to all of you who have jumped aboard the TSM rollercoaster!

V.

This is great news. Hope is so important. As I said before, in the unlikely event you haven't already, read Bob's progress reports. He's in the benzo group too and was seemingly going no where and losing hope and then suddenly he heard the "click"... A few weeks later he is virtually cured. Hopefully that will be your story in the very near future. Also, keep in mind the following (and I hope I'm not boring you with information you already know, but it's important): Your numbers are more than twice as high as the subjects of the studies -- I believe the people cured in four months were at about 35 units per week. From what I'm reading here on this board, people who drink twice as much as that (or more) can probably expect the method to take twice as long as that (or more) before they are cured. So, it's important to keep these facts in mind when shaping your expectations.

(Just re-read some of the earlier posts and I'm not breaking any new news here -- sorry for being redundant. But these things may be worth repeating for those times you are losing hope.)

Thanks, Nick!

You're not being redundant at all. On the contrary, your words of encouragement and support are like gold dust.

All the best to you.

V.

I admire your determination after so many weeks of no change. Finally, you're beginning to reap the harvest. That 4th month sure is a magic time!

Bob

Virgil , this I am so happy to see , indeed "click, click ". You must be so pleased
with this . Well done , so well deserved too , brace yourself for the rest it 's on its way !
Thanks for sticking the course . keep posting I look foreward to it .

Thanks, Folks!

V.

Hi Folks,

I have just completed week 18 on TSM. I'd hoped that the trend started during week 17 would continue but my units last week were up on week 17. Having said that, my intake was still below the magical 100 units per week that had plagued me for so long.

On a positive note, I got my liver function test results back and, although my Gamma GT is still high (which is to be expected), the LFT results themselves are fine - hooray!!! Not only that but I asked the doctor (who prescribes my naltrexone) to check my liver and he reckons it's in good shape so I'm really pleased about that. He also handed me a prescription for more naltrexone so I now have enough to keep me on TSM for another three months, by which time I hope to be well on the road to recovery.

Currently, my anxiety is very high and I think this may, in part, be due to my tapering off the benzo, clonazepam. Although I am tapering my dosage in accordance with Professor Ashton's guidelines (see http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/), I am now of the view that my anxiety has been worse since I started withdrawing from clonazepam way back in April of this year. The trouble is that a slow, gradual increase in anxiety is a sure way to keep me turning to alcohol. Furthermore, because it's a slow, gradual increase, it's not immediately apparent that it's happening. I always suspected that this would be a potential problem. I'm looking forward to the day when benzos are out of my life - all being well, that day will come in September of this year. For the record, my current dosage of clonazepam is equivalent to 2.2 mg diazepam per day.

So, it's onward and upward (or should that be downward?).

V.