Hi again,

I had a pretty great wedding 9/2. No Nal, no immediate consequences from drinking. The honeymoon was fairly smooth as far as you're concerned too. The rigors of getting from one place to another in a foreign country and having scheduled activities paid for helped. Being stuck on an island for 10 days with $20 cocktails didn't hurt either. Nal usage was so-so during the trip.

As I reflect on it, I think the half-forced-abstinence, half-indulgence, half-golden rule trip did it. The Alcohol Deprivation effect. Upon returning, a large bender ensued approximately 16 days until one day from the haze of my memory I can recall my parents and new step-parents appearing in my house. We must've been too unresponsive for the cavalry to show up like that. Anyway, I was very annoyed by this but they coaxed me into going to the hospital, "for my wife's sake", because she wouldn't go without me, and was apparently in bad shape. They were right about that - .47 BAC! Mine was .3 something. Yet... she got to go home that night, and I had to stay overnight. Ugh... wires and tubes all over you, effectively making it impossible to even toss and turn, and a bed alarm that goes off if you get up to even stretch! I'll not be repeating that again any time soon!

So it will have been 27 days straight AF since then, and 104 total for the year, when I resume again this Friday. Armed with Nal and Baclofen. Warned by so many bad experiences, mistakes, "words of wisdom/warning", hospital bills... and rules I need to get my wife to agree on. Not in the morning. Only on weekends 5p or later, for now. Only after Nal. I don't know... it needs to work, though.

Hi 333Matt, I'm going to put my 2 cents in here after reading your posts. Given your recent hospital and BAC scares w/ levels that could cause death, I suggest exercising extreme caution where alcohol is concerned. If you've gone 27 days AF (yay!), I suggest that you and your wife keep that going. You have the benefit of a "partner" in this battle but of course you both need to be on the same page.

Stay AF as long as you can. When/if you can't take it anymore of course take the Nal and drink something low in alcohol, like beer....absolutely no hard liquor. And no more than 1 or 2 on the weekend. You and your wife need to tread very carefully.

Please continue to post as often as you can and let us know how each day goes. Wishing you well.

FWIW, once I finally committed to giving up alcoholic drinking, I started with five months of total AF, via AA and SOS, before starting TSM. For me, the period of abstinence was definitely beneficial. It gave me back some self-esteem (see, I CAN do it!), let me absorb more of what AA and SOS had to offer without getting all hung up on the stuff I couldn't swallow, and let me think very carefully through my eventual decision to use TSM with the goal of moderation. So I entirely agree that racking up as many AF days as you can is likely to be helpful, PROVIDED you are doing your head work while in that completely sober state. If it's all white knuckles and thinking about drinking, not so much. My advice, make good use of whatever AF interlude you can manage.