Hi Guys,

Thought I would check in as its been over a year (or just under).

I failed doing the Sinclair Method but I have hope for those that it has failed.

Try sobriety,...white knuckle or not,....for at least a period of three months. Get beyond the Heebee jeebee's and out of the habit. Once there,...if/when you decide to experiment with booze,...take a 50 Mg of Nal. You first will have no tolerance and the hangover will be bad if you indulge too much. It will make you not drink per the Clockwork Orange( Movie reference) effect the next day. A week may go by and you will try again. The next time will probably be better as you intellectually try to drink less. Well with NAL it is easier. Anyways,...no promises just an idea for those that are having no luck and still crave and desire the need to try to drink. I do not have near the cravings I once had......Best, Jim

PS I am at the second week part of the experiment....no real craving to get hammered for fear of tomorrow's hangover

Hi Jim and thanks for posting this.

That was my experience too, I started TSM after a period of abstinence and I had a much easier time than most people who start TSM while still actively drinking. I suspect this is because of 3 things:

1) Through abstinence I was no longer physically addicted to alcohol (though, I'm sure had I started drinking without Nal again, I'd have gone through ADE and would have rapidly become re-addicted) and

2) as you say, I had lost the habit of drinking, I don't use the word habit lightly, I do believe that addiction aside, there is an element of habit to our drinking.

3) I had stopped using alcohol to deal with difficult situations or emotions:

And like you, I had horrific hangovers, these served as negative reinforcement for me, I quickly learned that if I had more than 3 units I would dearly pay the next day.

Best of luck with your experiment!

curi

6 units or 7 no drunkenness and paying today. Again the clockwork orange effect makes it so easy to get on AF horse again. NO FEar or guilt. Simply the ability to look objectively at the realization of doing it again...no thanks (obviously ill report in a week when its hard again)

Thanks for response too..glad it worked for you too. I'm certain this could help many who are struggling with complete abstinence...you wanna drink so u take a nal and try drinking. I'm really never interested in getting drunk again. My thoughts with a NAL hangover......

This is really interesting to me and I'm pondering how I can use this to push along my own progress which seems stalled out. Right now, I think that my physical addiction to alcohol is about 40% as powerful as a year ago, but my "habit addiction" is higher - 50 - 60%. Still, looking at these #'s, I think it's enough to work with if I put some torque into the program. I'm really wanting to get on w/ my life, which means to cease being a fat drunk Can I really commit to abstinence, if I tell myself it's a temporary experiment? I feel SO great the morning after an AF day that it seems dead-easy, but I forget that by 4 PM...Jim Clark, how did you do it, meaning maintain sobriety and for how long?

Curi, I'm glad you explained why you think you did so well w/ TSM...3 years is a long time to get past addiction, habits and emotional crutches. You brought the best of both worlds together - the lessons learned from abstinence and then the pharmaclogical extinction, to arrive at true freedom.

Unfortunately, I've not experienced worse hangovers from drinking on Nal, and I'm wistful about that - disliking discomfort as much as I do, that might help get my attention!