I've been lurking the past couple of months unable to sign on to my old address. Long story short is that this is keek starting over under a new signature. I'm considering taking low dose Nal on a daily basis and am interested in feedback from those of you who have done this. I have reduced my alcohol intake considerably since I no longer have it in the house and am able to AF 2-3 days in a row. My problem is that I say I'm going to take the Nal on drinking days and then I'm too afraid of the SE's. The Nal just makes the hangover considerably worse.

Anyhow, I woke up this morning ready to give the AA route a try and my hubby talked me out of it. He won't admit that I'm an alcoholic and I'm not going to try and convince him of it. So here I am contemplating the daily Nal. I'm thinking I can take a quarter of a tablet daily and then introduce a higher dose on drinking days.

Last week I had a bunch of lab work done and other than my cholesterol being high, I'm in pretty good shape. I was worried about my liver, and had told myself that I would cold turkey if it showed any signs of failure. Now I can take the Nal without fear of the added stress it might put on my internal organs. I'm going to take 12.5 tonight and go from there.

I figured there is no time like the present and took a 1/4 tablet of Nal an hour ago. Much to my surprise, I feel pretty good other than a little spacey. Now I need to look through the posts to find members who take Nal on a daily basis whether or not they drink.

When you look around here you will see that for most (but not all) people, Nal doesn't have an anti-craving effect, so the 12.5 on AF days probably won't do much.

I worry about your potential success on TSM if you can't make a commitment to ALWAYS taking a useful dose 1h before drinking. Most of us have found that even with this kind of commitment, gains are hard earned and easily lost. It's way better than the alternatives for me, but if you are so worried about the hangovers that you are drinking without nal on a regular basis, I doubt you will see much benefit.

When I say a useful dose, I don't necessarily mean 50mg... But the 12.5mg thing also seems like a concern. I used 12.5 exactly one time because I was worried about SEs. Next day 25. Since then, always 50.

I really am not trying to come down on you, just warning you that most of us follow the program pretty faithfully, and STILL it takes a long time and doesn't work for everyone. It's not a magic bullet. It's not a pill that you can just take on nights that you don't want to be a drunk. I truly hope that if you pursue what sounds like a "half in, half out" approach that it gets you where you want to be, but if it did, you would be the exception, not the rule.

My doc suggested I take it every day, but not a low dosage, the proper one. I disagreed so I am taking it on a per drinking session basis, as per dr. Es protocol.

I second what generic said.

Try giving baclofen a go too maybe, or AA, regardless of what your hubby says. It was the only thing that helped me stay sober for close to 4 yeas a while back, although back then I had an inept doc too in terms of medications. Alcoholic or not, saying hi I am ... and I am an alcoholic is just another tool to not drink and safeguard your mental and physical health and well being. So if it works, whey not?

But if you do stick with tsm definitely do the proper protocol, and do so religiously.

All the best and keep us updated on how it goes if you get a chance.

I have been prescribed Naltrexone by a doctor (psychiatrist) and he says to take it every day about the same time. This way body is used to it and SE are minimal he says. He also claims that the drug stay in the system, so as long as taken daily, no need to take befor drinking. So if I take it abt 5pm daily, but want a drinlk at lunch no need to take it. I don't know who is right, but I am sticking to the daily dose and at the same time desparately trying to not have any drinks on the day, so i effect i only drink after the Nal.

The drinking in day is still a problem for me though, mainly on weekends as i work during the week

Hey Gen & Joe..... Thanks for the reality check.... Yes you are absolutely correct on the half hardly approach to this method, but I am going to continue to TRY and work this program my way until I find something (whether it be AA or MM or TSM) that gets this demon under control. It may not ever happen, but I have to do something. Right now I am going to try Gotthegene's approach and go AF for a couple of months. This is a big commitment, but as my doc suggest's it is worth a try. Who knows, I may even like sobriety so much that stick with it. ..Also, I have looked at the cured list's posts enough to know that it isn't easy nor is it very successful to those who follow it to the nail, let alone those of us who deviate from the protocol. Hmmm. I'm finding myself saying " I'll prove to the nay Sayers that I CAN be a success story. Ya I am always over confident at the beginning of a sobriety stint.... Which has only lasted 3 weeks in the past. What's the saying... Keep on keeping on. Call me hopeful, call me in denial, call me unrealistic, just keep calling me something so that I don't give up entirely.....BTW, I was able to reset my password and can now post under my kekede user name. I wish everyone here much success....

We will see how this post goes..... I have been on this forum a few times in the past couple of weeks and have not been able to post, as I keep getting logged out... Post....

Yay, it worked... Anyhow I'm going back to my initial thread... The 2 months sober didn't work, but I'm learning my triggers, so all is not lost. Also, I took Nall beforehand and didn't have the severe SE's...now back to kekede progress thread.

It just logged me out again... If this continues.... I won't be posting much.... Just saying... Now to try and do an update...