I agree - plans can be really helpful. If you actually visualize what is going to happen after the exam, how much you are going to drink, what you are going to drink, in what setting, how it will make you feel, etc, it will be much easier to stick to a reasonable drinking amount. Good luck on the exam!

hi diver.

it can be frustrating to not see a large decline in numbers, but looking at yours, overall, there is a nice downward line happening. i agree with all the previous posters to take a look at how much better your life is with tsm. AND you have definitely made huge strides with all these AF days without issue!! congrats! it's totally impressive. a plan for the first non-af day may be a good idea. enjoy it, but keep in mind how painful the next day can be after blowing it out the night before.

good luck with your exam. i'm sure you will do great with your clear-head, sharp-as-a-nail brain, fully functioning!

Fired up, just passed the certification exam with flying colors! I wasn't able to string together all the AF days I had planned but still feel damn good. Sat. at a party I had 3 dos XX's and Sunday I had 3 glass of wine the rest of the days were AF. Still really good compared to my usual 10+ units per weekend day.

Started the celebration with my wife and a bottle of bubbly. Friends are on their way, which means scotch is on my horizen.

Bottoms UP,

Those are some very moderate celebrations! great job! and congrats on the certification!

Congrates Diver, What was the cert exam for? and where are those charts you promised?...LOL

Again congrates...Brings back memories of professional certification exams.......

Daiken

I thought that I would update my progress since it has been quite a while. I am plugging along currently in week 36. For the most part I continue to drink much more than is healthy. My weekly consumption usually hovers between the mid 40’s and mid 50’s, with on average 2 AF days per week. Then every couple of weeks I’ll have something going on and my units will spike into the mid 60’s and no AF days.

I was beginning to get concerned that due to my history that 50mg of Nal may not be a high enough dose for me. Three weeks ago I upped my dosage to 75mg; to be honest I haven’t seen much difference. I plan to keep it at 75mg for at least another week or two to see what, if anything happens.

I have to say that I was extremely encouraged to read the post from Seeking1. It took her two years before she was comfortable putting her name on the “Cured List”. Although it seemed that she may have been able to claim victory a few months before that. At any rate, I have rededicated myself to this process and will continue to slug through the ups and downs.

Best of Luck to All,
Diver

Good for you, Diver. At 36 weeks, you may be right on target. If you've been keeping up w/ the forum, than you've seen the really cool break throughs that have been occurring recently, for some people that have logged a lot of time w/ TSM. Thanks for staying in touch...

Chrissie

Good for you, Diver. Stay with the plan and stay with us!

It is hard to believe that three months have gone by since I updated my progress thread, anyway not much new to report. I played around with increasing the dose to 75mg, however that did not seem to have any effect so I am back to 50mgs. If I am having a long session of drinking I often will take another 50mgs after 4 hours to make sure that I don’t overpower the Nal.

I am still solidly in the plateau, over the last several months I have averaged 47 units a week with 1.5 AF days. A long ways away from where I hope to end up. I am nearing my one year anniversary on Nal but I plan to stay the course as I have seen several recent examples of success at 18-24 months.

I have seen improvement over the last year: no more blackouts, no more drinking first thing in the morning to take the edge off, increasing ability to stop the alcohol train after it has been rolling, weekly total decrease of approximately 20 units and improved liver test results!

Thanks for Reading,
Diver

Stay with it Diver. As you've noted, there have been real gains for you in doing TSM. And you are right, some people take longer than others. But you can get there.