I consider my self in week three now and just about to have first drink since sunday
(+ NAL) . However this is a little bit arbitrary as in Feb I tried it out had a two day honey moon and let it drop on half of say next six occaisions . So that was feb, I think tentatively that it's already having an effect reducing my desire and making me drink about 3/4 of my usual intake as well as may be one session less a week.
Periods of Abst and attempted moderation ( no fun , the craving drove me nuts)
must have at least been beneficial to drive down the totals . But I did have a tendancy to put all my drinking into a weekend . And it's still the prob as last two weekends with the NAl I drank a btle and half the sat night and half as much the next lunch . I think I had less desire next day but force of habit and fear of mini withdrawal compelled me on . Anyway . I'd like to get the spikes down as I don't think they're good for a dicky liver, so .....I'm going to up the frequency to 3 days a week and hope to cut the spikes .
Your good health everyone .

Well progress is progress. It takes time and that is one thing we do have.

elf,

Why all the hard work? Just go ahead and give into the cravings, but be sure to always take the Nal 1 hour ahead of time. One of the things Dr. Eskapa writes about is how depriving an alcoholic of alcohol increases cravings. . .and ends up in heavier drinking. So your liver is dicey. . .probably true of all of us. . .but the sooner the pharmacological extinction takes place, the sooner your liver will have a true, permanent time of recovery. That extinction won't take place unless you Naltrexone+Alcohol=Cure.

(OMG: Are we beginning to sound like an alternative AA group, with our 'pat formulas'?)

Going4 and SR
I hadn't checked back on this thread and just picked up yr messages there .
Thankyou . Yes, why all the effort ? habit , work the next day . I think you'll notice
my days increase now this week and next . All our livers are dickey . You know the liver here in France is the medical favourite , I think in UK it's the heart, in US it's the bowel ? I've just had the damn fatty liver for so long and feel irresponsible drinking on it and wonder if the next drink will tip me into cirrhosis so try to maintain some control still .thought of going on a bender today .But , it's still just a thought
Anyway I'll be drinking yer health jolly soon
Oh yes I did drink some 7 units last night and it was a longish evening at table with others , very much as Gong 4 experienced . Felt like a "normie" , most odd but just great , such hope , ... So the urge for a bender was a shock as til now the next dayhas been low craving . Perhaps the bender would have been a reduced orchestration, I'll have to see soon.

On the upside . I 'm very pleased as I haven't had all my intake on sat night sun
lunch and spaced it over three reasonable nights . It hasn't been too difficult either.
So no thundering hangovers, no lying in bed all day . Just great .
Downside is great sleepiness while drinking and a general lethargy most of the time .
going out for a walk seems like a gargantuan task .
The body seems to be leading over the mind and I've the impression of feeling reflexes to have another drink or go for the glass and then an echo which is "I don't really want to ". This double speak is a bit like when you stop smoking half of you hasn't realized and pats the pocket thinking "right, we'll have a cig " before recognition that we don't do that any more .The difference is that this is really the body saying no , the real needs are down with the cigs it was the opposite the body was saying yes and the mind no ._________________

I hope the sleepiness will pass Elfern, I think mine has now (week 6).

I feel some of the 'cravings' we have are not really cravings- just reflexes, or habit.

I am getting quite good at working out what is what now, and basically ignoring those. If I can't ignore them I know it is a craving, but most of them just disappear.

Congrats on week 3/4!

Onwards and Up!

The weekly total is up , the number of days drinking up too . One nasty day , I think alot of it was worsened by an anxiety that I was going to driink hugely which made the whole thing uncomfortable . Even still it didn't turn anyway near as bad .Presinc this was the kind of bender day where I'd start at lunch time and could top 20 units.
Otherwise craving up, let's say sixish . But drinking while craving ( fear of empty glass rather ) milder .
Not so much sleepiness . But sleep turbulence , not every night but can mean waking at 3 or 4 and getting up , going back to sleep around 6 again . Not that great on days I've to get up at 6:30 .
A mixed week really but I remain confident as something is reducing my interest in continuing drinking once starting .

I'm having a similar experience. Last night we were invited to a get-together. I had a couple glasses of wine beforehand, and then SO (who gets up at 4 a.m. during the week) decided to power nap before we left. He slept an hour - and I switched to drinking a soft drink for the hour he slept. Another glass of wine didn't even appeal to me - and THAT is unheard of. Drank four more glasses thru the night. Still, 6 glasses of wine on a party night? It would have been twice that much Pre-Sinclair.

Elfern - looks like you are doing great, congrats - keep focusing on the reduction in desire not the units.

I wish we could all go back and fix our pre-sinclair measures to reflect what we would have drank had we not been attempting reduction...I started at 20-30...but if no one had been in the house watching me like a hawk and I had all the wine I wanted, the # would have been much higher. I think everyone needs to remember that - pre-sinclair we were probably struggling to keep at that level. Now, even if the actual units is not dramatically lower than before, it's the increase in ability to stay at or below that level that has likely changed. I realize this has not happened for everyone YET but that is the first noticeable change and some have a horizon that is just a bit further off than others.

Regarding the sleep disturbance - do you drink a lot of caffeine? I had the same issue the first week but found if I diligently watched my caffeine intake in the afternoon I started to sleep better. Just wondering, I know the medication definitely affects everyone differently.

You're right happy, goodness only knows the score if all effort were abandoned pre sinc .
No coffee for me after the morning .