I'm wanting to get myself out of the habit of the weekly to bi-weekly binge. The rest of the time I'm usually alcohol-free. Since I'll sometimes have 0 units / 7 AF days for the week I thought it might be more useful to track things month-to-month. Anyhow, I hope this information is useful to anyone with a similar pattern.

Here's January (started TSM middle of week 2, my max consumption day was before starting on naltrexone):

January
Total Drinks: 67
Avg. Drinks Per Session (all situations): 9.6
Avg. Drinks Per Session (bar situations): 11
Number of sessions in a bar setting: 6
Max consumption in one session: 19
AF Days: 24
Hangover days: 2
Notes: Began TSM after 1st drinking session in month, 1st session was highest at 19 units.

February
Total Drinks: 69
Avg. Drinks Per Session (all situations): 9.9
Avg. Drinks Per Session (bar situations): 11
Number of sessions in bar setting: 6
Max consumption in one session: 15
AF Days: 21
Hangover days: 6

Hey Sideshow,

As a fellow binger I'm curious as to what initial effect you think naltrexone has on your consumption.
Anything different?

-Ned

Hey Ned - so far it's subtle but it definitely has an effect. I may be drinking slower, I'm not sure, but so far on most occassions I have a moment where I'm just like "ok, I'm done" and I go home almost reflexively whereas without the Naltrexone I'm almost certain I would have stayed out. I'm early in TSM so this I'm done moment isn't exactly happening where I'd like but it does seem like it's there. Is this similar for you?

Hey Side8,

I have had and still have a pattern very similar to yours. I've always been a binger/repenter, and I used to binge about four nights a week, drinking about 15 drinks per session. Here are a few of my observations:

For bingers the reporting of weekly numbers can be less meaningful than for our Mediterranian Style brethren because one night deciding to drink or not can totally skew your numbers. For instance if your cut off day is Saturday and you know one weekend day is going to be AF, then your weeklies will look a lot better if you wait until Sunday to drink. But that doesn't mean you're actually making progress - we bingers can almost always do an AF when we feel like it. Because of that, tracking your monthlies is a good idea as you suggest.

Tracking "per drinking session" and "average per drinking session" is also very helpful - I did this for about 20 weeks. Of course your average per drinking session can be skewed if it is done on a weekly basis, so again, a bigger sample is helpful. I have never tried it, but I think a 10-14 day sample might be useful for us bingers.

Now some 40 odd weeks into this thing, I'm also wanting to cut back the number of days I drink. The good thing is that using tsm tools I know we'll be able to do it.

Good luck -

Fire

PS I also think some of the other stats you are keeping - Max consumed, Hangover Days, etc - Great Idea. Just don't forget to monitor your less tangible overall improvement. That is actually the biggest stat of all

January
Total Drinks: 67
Avg. Drinks Per Session (all situations): 9.6
Avg. Drinks Per Session (bar situations): 11
Number of sessions in a bar setting: 6
Max consumption in one session: 19
AF Days: 24
Hangover days: 2
Notes: Began TSM after 1st drinking session in month, 1st session was highest at 19 units.

February
Total Drinks: 69
Avg. Drinks Per Session (all situations): 9.9
Avg. Drinks Per Session (bar situations): 11
Number of sessions in bar setting: 6
Max consumption in one session: 15
AF Days: 21
Hangover days: 6

March
Total Drinks: 59
Avg. Drinks Per Session (all situations): 6.6
Avg. Drinks Per Session (bar situations): 7
Number of sessions in bar setting: 8
Max consumption in one session: 10
AF Days: 23
Hangover days: 2