Well, I suppose it's time for my progress thread! I've recently lapsed after 15 weeks abstinence, but my historical drinking has been 80 - 100 UK units a week. For five months before abstinence that had shot up to 15 - 35 UK units a day after some traumatic events.

Yesterday was my first time drinking on Nal. I recorded some of my feelings and the side effects on my intro thread:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=391&start=30

After drinking 14 UK units in five hours I was pretty drunk. I slept well though, which I was pleased about, and am hungover today, naturally.

I still feel pretty nauseous, though, and don't know if it's the Nal or part of the common-or-garden hangover. My usual trick would be to have a beer to settle things. To be honest I'm a bit scared of taking the Nal again, sort of dreading the same side effects as last night, but at the same time I know that the effects shouldn't last many more days...hmmm.

Hi 8,

Glad you finally go your Nal! I am only a week ahead of you.

I totally know the feeling of being afraid to take the Nal again for fear of side affects. For me, the initial side affects were similar to yours. But my next day hangovers seemed to be mixed sides with hangover.... moving forward Im going to attempt some moderation in order to lessen the affects of the next day.

Hang in there, Ive noticed my initial side affects have pretty much diminished, now Im working on the hangover part. A month from now, Im sure our stories will have changed alot.

Thanks so much for the encouragement, WTE and AJ_, I know it's just a matter of time before the side effects go and I'm sticking with it!

It's an interesting thought that a placebo-type effect might be at work. The nausea was bad, with quite a lot of retching, but is not so bad tonight. I made sure I had a full stomach too, great tip! I have the same spacey feelings tonight, and had been quite anxious all day, but the Nal seems to have calmed me.

After I took it I couldn't wait at first for the time to be up so I could start drinking. Once the Nal kicked in I no longer felt like a drink AT ALL, I wanted a nice glass of water! But I'm having to make do with this lager ha.

Hapful, thank you also for your encouragement and your own experience, & great to know we're at such similar stages!

Exactly three hours in, and I'm still struggling - really struggling - on my third pint of lager. The stuff just doesn't appeal and is simply making me feel bloated and gassy. Interesting.

That is a surprisingly common occurrence of not feeling like a drink once the hour passes. I suspect many folks here experience it so often that they don't even report it in their online journals here any longer. But we all know that once we have had the Naltrexone, we have to give it something to extinguish and it may as well be that lager!

Bob

Yeah I can relate. The first two nights it was really hard to choke the stuff back, and it ended up just coming back up. But by day 3 the nausea disappeared and the appeal came back.

That's something I need to be prepared for, thanks for the heads-up. At this stage though I'm just fascinated - and amazed - that dramatic things have happened at all. They no doubt will change, but for me they're really signals that there's a lot of power in this stuff.

Bob, so that feeling persists? And for most people, you think?

I struggled to drink those 3 pints last night - 6.5 UK units.

Still a little nauseous and heady today, and a very chemical taste in my mouth and smell on my skin.

Based on my own experience, it happens more than half the time, even in the after "the cure". I can't speak for everyone of course. Perhaps you can ask the question on the "TSM SUCCESS STORIES" thread.

Bob

I think it varies quite abit from person to person. I occasionally experienced this, but mostly didn't find that Nal reduced my craving level immediately after taking it.

Later in the treatment, the craving just isn't there to begin with. Most days now, I have absolutely no craving for AL what so ever. This is the real beauty of TSM, not effect you describe, which really is a bi-product of the first drink effect. Most people who experience this also report that if they start drinking, they blow right past this into their regular drinking pattern.

Q