Oh Fudge!

Week 12 so far S15, S0, M17

Week 12 projected 75 Wowsers. Better nip that in the bud.

After starting Saturday OK, and working out, it ended with 15 beers at the Saturday Final Four party. These close friends of ours hosting the party are both close to my pre-tsm levels. She is a school teacher, but he has the ultimate alky's job. He gets to place all of the AB-Inbev orders in his area, which requires him to visit all of the liquor stores, gas stations, and grocery stores, and collect all of the "out-of-date" beer. Needless to say, their fridges are always overflowing with AB products, with a garage stockpile ready to refill the fridges several times over. "Please take some with you when you leave".

We didn't take any beer with us, other than what was left in my bubba mug. (My wife had zero. I can only dream of that day.) I finished that at home, and actually switched to Powerade when it was gone, and watched a movie "Men in Black 3" from 11-1pm. Other than drinking way too much, I did pace myself, left way earlier than I normally would, and switched to Powerade at home while I had beer in the fridge. Pre TSM Christopher would have polished off 6 more while watching said movie Sat. Night. I actually felt fine Sunday morning after 15 units, capped off with the 2 32oz powerades. (Not like today, see below.)

Sunday, behaved, AF.

Monday, all was good until I fell into a 5 hour drinking event that evening. Normally I stay out of bars/taverns in my home town, unless I have my wife with me. I guess I stay away, because I believe that it will be easier for the local non alcoholics to realize that I am an alcoholic if they would see me frequenting one of them or all of them. So I guess I have kept my distance from bars over the years to hide my alcoholism. (Sounds f'ed up, doesn't it.) The only exceptions would be bars closer to work for a quick happy hourish stop with co-workers, or a local bar if that is the meeting place for a certain group. This was the case last night. New Local Sports Organization forming in town, and they meet at local taverns (imagine that, drinkers forming a another sports association, right up my alley). Last nights meeting was a combination of Organization Business, MLB game on, followed by NCAA Basketball game. 12 units there, NO FOOD, and then 5 with the neighbor. Greyed out a bit before bedtime, and wife noticed pretty easily that I was drunk and commented as such.

I also feel pretty shitty today. I know many have discussed the Nalover effect on here, which I am glad that I am experiencing it, however, has anyone seen on here a "Scientific" Explanation/chemical reaction, or is it simply loss of tolerance when units are decreasing?

With a rough start to the week like this, I need a special game plan this week. Last week I managed a record 3 AF days. To salvage this week I'm gonna try for 4 AF with at least 2 in a row. So off to the gym today. Hopefully, Tues-Thurs due to what is scheduled to follow Fri and Sat.

Friday is a local scheduled drinking event with several couples. Happy Hour, Dinner, and a Band.
Saturday is an out of town soccer tournament. There are several boozer parents on this soccer team, with a couple of professionals like myself.

@PeterNYC. My spreadsheet is nothing special, but I will email it to you if you want. Send me an email at christopher.hulsey@yahoo.com requesting it if you want me to send it. I don't check that email address very often, so it may be a week or so.

Chris,
Still sounds like it is helping you for sure. I can relate to those occasions where beer is just being thrown at you, so hard to say no.

I am not getting any side effects from nal anymore. I honestly cannot tell if I have taken it or not and sometimes I have to go back and check and make sure I have the empty capsule case in the bin, so I can't comment on the nalovers. But it would make sense that the tolerance to alcohol is coming down. I remember after I had a bad sickness that stopped me drinking for 6 months, when I got back on the booze, I had some bad hangovers, but all returned normal after a few months. And before TSM I honestly can't remember that last time I had a hangover.

And talking about tolerance, I had to have an Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and they give you an anesthesia to put you to sleep for the procedure. They injected the the usual amount for an adult male and they sat there all staring at me, then the Dr asks me if I am feeling sleepy, and I reply 'No'. So they hit me with a half dose and same reaction, so they hit my two more times with half doses until I was given 2.5 times what most people will fall asleep in 10 seconds. I ended up waking up mid procedure any way, but was groggy enough not to be bothered by the hose stuck down my throat! LOL

I trust you did tell them you use Naltrexone?

This was last year, before I even knew about TSM.

Hey Buddy, I can commiserate greatly with this. The first thing nal did for me was to "take the fuel out of the rocket." Rather than accelerating and slamming ever larger glasses of whiskey, as soon as I started nal, my drinking was much more paced. That doesn't mean that I don't regularly take a slow march into a greyed out confusion, but at least the generic who used get all riled up and break things, Chris Farley style, went away pretty quickly. The second stage of this process is the longer, more tedious one, where alcohol becomes less and less appealing and your numbers slowly creep down over months.



I don't know if I believe in the nal-over. Well, at least I have never experienced anything particularly bad. My hangovers have gotten easier to acquire over the last year, but they are shorter lasting. My weekend benders used to have me surly and anxious until around Wednesday. Now, I sometimes wake up with more "classic" hangover symptoms like headaches, which I never used to get, after only a bottle of wine, but I can recover by that same evening.

Hey, has it really been a month since you had any vodka? I think that switching to beer and lower octane bevvies is a great way for all of us to make some good progress.

@Generic,

Yes, yesterday was 1 month Vodka Free. I have downgraded to Natty Lite, Select, and Malt 8% High Sugar Beverages (usually diluted with Soda or Natty Lite). I have decided to start cutting back on those (the 8% Sugar Malts). They have actually started tasting pretty good, so I feel I need to get back to plain old light beer.

Week 12 so far S15, S0, M17, T0, W0

Week 12 projected 45

Not much to update. A first since TSM, 2 AF in a row. Going on 3rd today/tonight.

Tuesday Behaved AF and went to Gym.

Wednesday Behaved AF and went to Gym. I did get tempted last night. I had to drive my volleyball player to her practice at 6pm. What was I going to do for 2 hours? Old Christopher would have had 8-10 before getting home. He then would have went to Hooters and waited out the practice, and then head home for more, if not have 1 in a mug ready for the ride home. I debated going to Hooters, since I hadn't had any so far yesterday. What was popping a Nal and having 3 or 4 gonna hurt. (The bad thing, is if I did have only 3 or 4, even with Nal in me, the monkey still sometimes wants the magical "1 More For the Road", and I end up stopping for supplemental 2x4). I even debated going there and just drinking soda, but didn't think I could pull it off at the last minute when asked what I wanted to drink. So, I fought of the urge and went to a couple discount stores instead for a quick patrol of the aisles looking for a bargain.

Made it home AF and sober. I still have not got my breathalyzer yet.

Good work Chris. It really looks like your units are slowly but surely coming down and good work on the AF days.

Chris, that is another milestone - breaking habits! I swear so much of my drinking starts with habits. Nal seems to help give me the extra help to get thru a five o'clock Friday hour and say No it's OK to not drink now. Really, for 30 or so years before I found nal I could not do that. So hat's off to you, you're making good progress!

Week 12 so far S15, S0, M17, T0, W0, T6

Week 12 projected 41

Not so good Thursday. Realized at work that I really needed to do my taxes last night, so I had to right of the gym. Even taxes in the past years for me have been a drinking event. Last night I popped my nal before beginning. I had a 12 pack of beer in the fridge. Drank 1, than decided I was hungry and ate. Then went back to taxes. Poured a total of 8 into my macho beer mug total, but actually dumped out 2 after disinterest. So 6 5% beers doing my taxes and my oldest daughters taxes.

Not the worst, but AF would have been better and the gym.

Tonight I will be popping a nal, friends, dinner, and band. Probably Saturday, out of town soccer tourney. I will update on Monday.

Good luck with the weekend to all.

I'm curious as to when one starts with the lower octane drinks? I have taken the alcohol out of the house, and usually buy the 9% "koolaide", but usually fortify it with a couple of mini vodka's, since I am terribly afraid of not getting to that Buzz.