MischievousFilly if you feel nausea eat before you drink. and once you fell your stomach getting upset take 4 table spoons of extra strenght mylanta, or tums exra streght. my neighber is a doctor and told me to do that. the first month i was nausea. what is so pathetic of me was i didnt know why i was nausea, until i started reading this post.if worst case senerio it doesnt get better, let me know and i will tell you this medication(i forgot the name) that will get rid of the nausea. you hang in there im praying for everyone on this post.WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL BEEEEEEEEEEE CURED.

Yesterday, took my 12.5 and, in the absence of my usual favorite poison, I went for my 2nd choice double-shot drink. It felt nice, went to a community group meeting which went well, came home and had my 2nd drink which tasted not very good. Thought about dumping it but did not.

Stayed up too late, did not get enough sleep, and have been nauseated all morning. OTC nausea remedies not helping much. I'm hoping to feel better after lunch.

I *DO* have good spells when the side effects are missing and I feel good and alert, so I am optimistic.

Definitely have to get more/better sleep.

Trudging along......

MischievousFilly you me and everyone on this forum will make it. we all just got to hang in there. as far as sleep, i live off of 6 hours a day, and in those six hours i wake up literly every hour and it takes me 20 minutes to go back to sleep. if i dont drink, i hate to admit I NEVER CAN SLEEP. i have tried evry sleeping pill and every anti-deppresion pill NOTHING WORKED, and if they did i had bad side efects.(trembeling, leg shaking when i lay down,night sweats,night shivering, spaced out, very forgetful.the only thing that helped me was xanax, but i built a tolerance to the meds. i dont have sleep apenia. i dont care anyway about the sleep that much, i dont feel tired in the day so im fine with that i just want to sleep like normal peopl. good luck mishiev and have a blessed day.

Larry, Thanks as always for the encouragement! For what it's worth, the best approach for me to get a good night's sleep (even if choppy due to the Nal these days) is to exercise. Over the course of a day, I walk about an hour and if I don't do it, my sleep is usually affected. That said, my sleep problem tends towards sleeping too much rather than too little.

Last night I drank without the Nal, I must confess. Total drinks was 5. I thinking about switching to a certain type of beer which is somewhat hard to find (due to my allergy to barley) as I believe that will slow down and cut down my intake quite a bit. Then, too, wine is also less potent per volume than the double-shot mixed drinks that have been my downfall so that might be another good option for me.

Can't wait to feel good again.

Gotta keep on, keeping on.....

After some serious soul-searching and reading of others' experiences with TSM on this site (especially Server's), I've decided to at least temporarily step away from TSM.

For me, it's been 10 days of hellish battling with side effects (nausea, headache, nervousness, fatigue, hot flashes, chills, sleep disturbance, and depression) on just 12.5mg. I've tried all the work-arounds to no avail. After reading Server's thread in the "Cured" section I realized that her (?) experience paralleled mine and while she stuck it out with the Nal, ultimately she decided to go abstinent. Makes sense. If Nal makes one SO sick apart from any endorphin-effect extinction, pretty soon one is going to quit drinking as in "this ain't fun anymore!".

So, I'm going to try another strategy which I will document in the "other treatments" section of this site for those interested. In brief, it consists of:

1. switching from hard-liquor to non-barley-based beer, hard-cider, and/or wine.

2. using a Kudzu supplement as is documented in another thread in the "other treatments" board.

I do believe TSM is a wonderful option for many, many people and, who knows, I may return to it. I also think other treatment approaches including 12 step programs, SMART recovery, other medications, etc. are worthwhile and effective for many. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. I feel badly when I see quibbling over what "cured" means or rigid belief that one person's treatment is the ONLY way or what an "alcoholic" is vs. a "problem drinker." I think those discussions have their place in an academic context but not down here in the trenches with just us chickens trying to find a way back to a healthy, happy way of life.

Hi M, Am sorry to hear that the Nal is so horrendous. I'm currently on an abstinence run but doubt it will be forever (didn't think I'd get thru last night but somehow managed to). If you glance at my thread, I too am trying to figure this out..."Over the Influence" is a good book to check out. I tried kudzu while I was drinking and found it didn't really help...but it was VERY difficult to break the DAILY drinking habit. I found that I had to be abstinent for 4+ days (took a personal crisis for that to happen) before I felt I had a chance in hell of continuing it. Maybe Kudzu would help keep the cravings at bay now that I'm not drinking....?

Given my journey these past several weeks, I really feel one needs to get a serious AF period in (to break the pattern of drinking) and do some serious work on discovering "why" you drink...I believe part of it is chemistry...and part of it is alcohol substituting for something that is lacking in your life. And for me, realizing I have dysthymia, the alcohol just helps relieve the depression.

Switching away from one's favorite drink does help a bit and for a short period....I found however tho that after a while I started "cheating" and going back to my vodka.

Perhaps you'll consider continuing to post here...even tho you are not on Nal (as I have on my abstinence run)....I find the community helpful and is my only support thru all this.

Take care.

THere is another method for treating people who really don't respond to the naltrexone, Topamax. Actuall both could be used simultaneously but then we wouldn't know which one helped you.

this is a email resopnse from dr. steven cox a specialist on tsm who worked with dr. escapa and dr. sinclair. i going to fly to kentucky at the end of october to meet up with him for advice and some questions i have regarding tsm. goth for me im starting month 5.i refuse to take a a few days off until i feel ready. whats the point to quit if im not ready im not going to lay in bed and think about drinkig. thats at least my approch. as far as the habit i am trying to get a hold of david sinclair to ask him wasnt breaking the habit a issue in the 100 trials he did. if my craving and obsesion goes down, then my biggest concern will be breaking the routine. crisse try topamax but before you try it and go to the doctor and tell him to give you something to help with the nausea?i will email roy escapa and find out what he recomends for your situation. im telling you guys GET ON YOU KNEES EVERY NIGHT AND ASK GOD TO TAKE THIS AWAY. he will help ALL OF US. if you dont believe in GOD please dont get offened what i said.dont leave us yet crissi.i love guys.

OK, so I've been experimenting with some things and wanted to post back here how it is going for me.

First of all, I've switched from hard liquor to beer and hard cider which has allowed me to cut my drinking almost in half, overall. I also will drink wine sometimes.

Also, I started taking Kudzu and interestingly enough got some of the SAME side effects from it as I got from Naltrexone although much milder. I'm wondering if it functions in a similar way and this is an alternate way to get a similar outcome for those who cannot tolerate the Nal side effects which in my case were severe.

The next phase of my experiment is to use the Kudzu (way small dose) in a manner similar to TSM--that is, only taking it when I'm going to drink about 1 hour prior.

Stay tuned...

Please let us know how that works for you. I have a whole field of kudzu down the street, and if it's effective, I can always go down there and graze.

Whatever works, I always say.