Cheers, Mario, I don't know where to ask my questions, I (as you saw) started an introduction thread but I'm heisting about starting a progress report or another thread in Questions about TSM. For the moment, if you wouldn't mind, could you answer a few questions in the thread I started, it's just that I'd like to keep all the info together.

Thanks in advance!!

Hi all, its been weeks since I posted in my own journal. Im still very happy with nal and tsm. I do over drink at times but its almost always at a time Ive planned it eg I went out last Monday night with hubby and friends. Ive no idea how many units I had but I was certainly the most sober one of them all and quit and went to bed at the hotel before any of them. Hubby came to bed after about an hour and was acting the fool. I warned him he was going to fall out of the bed but he stayed messing about and he duly fell out of bed, I laughed hard at the muppet looking up at me with his eyes swiming inside in his head. It was even sweeter after all the years of me being the one trying to negotiate the bed full to the gills of wine. He really suffered the day after as we were taking visitors sightseeing. He sat across the table from me having breakfast looking green sipping orange juice. I told him the sausage and eggs were good but he declined

Im sitting here now with the same first glass of wine in front of me for the last hour and a half with no sesire to finish it. If I decide Im going to have a good few drinks I do but find that after about 5 I just cant swallow anymore. I have nevere counted my units but it can be anywhere from 7 or 8 to 15 or 20 on a week where Im out a lot. It doesnt bother me anymore I feel normal and if I have 5 or 6 one night I know I will probaly have one or two the night after if any at all.


Thinking the other day of how well the internet has served me. I was on an andepressant for many years following post natal deppresion untill I found out about a great liquid b-complex and Im now off meds for over a year. I had spots of psoriosis and read about milk thistle and it worked. Ive also been plaged by irratable bowel syndrome(lovely topic) and I started researching it when I found peppermint capsules and its never bothered me since. Hubby has had restless leg syndrome since he went on steroids four years ago and twiches and jumps around the bed at night. He is on a lot of meds and the one the doc was giving him for it is strong with a lot of possible side effects and we didnt want him taking it. Again off I went on a mission and after a few false starts which included puting a bar of soap at the end of the bed dont laugh it was worth a try. I finaly found magnisium about three weeks ago and fingers crossed our bed is motionless well at least as motionless as we want it to be .Lastly my bigest find of all was nal, tsm and this site. So really I dont know who ever thought of the internet but it was a blessing for me.

Now Im off to make sure Hubby takes his magnisium

Hi Mario - What a cool post. You are doing so fantastic! Yes, my mother tried the soap too and it didn't work. If it had worked I would have tried it too if I had restless leg syndrome. I'm with you, anything is worth a try.

I'd love to get off the Zoloft. Tell me more about the Liquid Bs. I had read about magnesium and Milk Thistle. In fact, our Vet told us to give Milk Thistle to our 13 year old dog with a declining liver.

Glad to hear you are still doing so well.

Hi Half a glass, I absolutly swear by liquid -b complex. A huge number of alcoholics are low in the b vits which are vital for the manafacture of serotonin. My health food store advised me that I should use the liquid form for the first two or three months as you put a few drops under your tounge and it all gets through to your system. A lot of the tablet form gets lost in the gut before it has a chance to be absorbed. The tabs are ok from once you have adequate levels again. It was zoloft I was on too but alcohol can effect its ability and often when I was drinking alcoholically it wouldnt work for weeks at a time so I was constantly bouncing from high to low. Im certain b-complex works because I often forget to buy it and if Im without it for about 10 days I start feeling blah and I stop sleeping well. I then have to take it twice a day for two or three days untill Im back in form. Its happened too many times for me not to trust it now. I stick rigidly to the same one. Its a tiny little bottle and if you want me to send you two bottles (enough for two months) I can, just pm me your address. Its not expensive so its no bother and It would be brilliant if it worked. Let me know

Mario, always good to hear from you. It sounds like things are really going well for you. I love to hear about the moments when the tables are turned on the so-called "normal" drinkers in our lives. If you are the more sober end of the spectrum that is a good thing in my book. We've certainly all spent our fair share of time on the other end of the spectrum. I've frequently found myself as the designated driver in recent months and I don't mind a bit. It's a good excuse not to overdo it. Like you I'm not posting much on my own thread because there is just not much to report. Another good thing.

I take a boatload of B, both in a powdered multi and a B tablet. Does liquid B really make a difference?

I posted recently that I had mostly droped to taking 25mg of nal. Ive recently started back taking a full 50mgs again as I just felt afer a number of weeks that I just didnt have the same level of control that I had. I did it for no reason other than I normaly only drink for a couple of hours and felt that 25mgs would cover me for 12 hours. However in my case that wasnt so. I didnt go from drinking three or four units to massive amounts or to blackout plus I still had all the other benifits but I just wanted to have that next drink a little too much and the last thing I want or need is to feel even a small amount of the controll Ive regained slipping away. I had for a long time been at the stage where I would forget about the glass in front of me and it wasnt nice to even for a moment be wondering if there was enough left in the bottle. So its back to 50mgs for me. The only thing that bugs me is that my stash of nal wont last as long as I had hoped. Its also a reminder that I am not 'cured' of my alcoholism, I have it under controll as long as I take 50mgs of nal an hour before I drink and if I ever am stupid enough to think that I have this thing licked and I can quit my medication for alcoholism it wont be long letting me know that it can and will come back in full strength.

Oh well, lesson learned

Mario, this is exactly the kind of update that is so very valuable to everyone on the board. We could file this under the "You've regained control now what" category. Glad to hear you recognized what was going on and nipped it in the bud. Just a question out of curiosity. Do you have any nal side effects at all or was this just an experiment to see if 25mg would cover you?

No I actually had very little side effects from nal. Well I guess thats not strictly true I did have a fair bit of nausia when I was in the US on holls because I was taking it everyday but in the normal course of events I dont have any. Really the reason I went down to 25mgs was we had really beautifull weather in May and we were buying a 24 pack of beer each week for the fridge so most evenings I was having a beer or 2 beers in the garden after work before diner. I knew I wasnt going to drink more so I resented 'wasting' a full tab on just a couple of beers. It went from there to taking just 25mg on Fridays when I would buy a bottle of wine but as I said slowly slowly that little feeling of wanting more crept up.

As well as that my teenage daughter was fully aware from me why I had quit alcohol for three years and she knew I was going back to drinking because I had found something that I believed would work for me. I could see her watching me for a few weeks at the beginning but from once she realised that it wasnt in an out of controll way she took no notice whatsoever and even said "Im so glad that you are going out with Dad for drinks again" as she would often hear him asking me to go out to the pub with him and I didnt want to and it would piss him off(shes a daddys girl and anything that makes daddy happy is good with her). One evening last week I opened a beer when we got home from work and she just commented "Mom, a beer at 6.30 in the evening?" I did tell her to mind her business but at the same time I never again want her to worry about my drinking and to be honest I didnt like the fact myself that I was letting myself get into this habit of being AF only a couple of days a week. So I have gone back to drinking my normal few glasses of wine on Friday and Saturday and looking forward to them and thats absolutly fine with me. I couldnt afford the calories anyway

It's interesting that 25mg isn't working, I wonder why that is? Maybe your brain needs more time at 50? It's a pity because I totally understand your motives.

I find it interesting too that just because you can drink, you do. When I joined this site first I was interested in taking Nal just so I could have a drink to avoid drawing attention to myself for not drinking, now I'm interested it's because I want to be able to drink moderately, that's quite a change of thinking and I haven't even started drinking/Nal-ing yet!

Glad to hear everything is going well for you.