Greetings. This is my first post and I feel compelled to contribute after getting some great info here, and nearly weeping after reading Maggie1928's success story. I appreciate the wealth of info and hope I can add something to it! At present I do not wish to share too much info but may tell my whole story one day. Suffice to say I am a heavy binge drinker that doesn't alway lose "control". But when life throws him certain stresses, be they success or failures, he can completely lose control and this has led me to severally damaging my life via DUI's.

I have been in 12-Step rehab and hated virtually everything attached to this antiquated, fundamentally anti-scientific worldview. I actually only submitted to rehab for the benefit of my court date and successfully completed it. But for all the failing of my 12-Step rehab and their admitted 7-10% efficacy - It did help with three things: I avoided probation and received lenient treatment at trial, it also showed me the scary world of the full blown, drink-all-day alcoholic, and as I rejected the dogma of AA I researched and read on my own there and found TSM. Prior to all this, I was aware of "Harm Reduction" and tapering off alcohol prior via the Hams Network website and never required detox and didn't even drink every day. But neither prevented me from getting a second DWI in less than a year.

I believe I used alcohol as a means to deal and effectively "self-medicate" anxiety and depression as opposed to loving being drunk all of the time. However, I certainly have an addictive pathway that leads me to lose complete control in the presence of certain triggers - and this can't happen anymore! So as a result of learning of TSM via that The Irrationality of AA article on the Atlantic website, I procured NAL and have completed my first week on it. My observations are as follows:

1.) I am no longer craving alcohol (specifically beer), but have only ever experienced minor cravings to begin with. But I consider this week to be my first extinction event as I now rarely think of booze other than I really don't care for it anymore after just a few drinking sessions on NAL.

2.) I no longer enjoy the piney, citrusy flavors of complex, craft brew IPA's on NAL. They now taste like Pinesol cut with soda water and grapefruit juice with rubbing alcohol added. I from here on out will only drink cheap beer like PBR for the remainder of treatment.

3.) I had a back-to-back "honeymoon" experience followed by a massive "spike" the next evening of about 13.5 U.S. units of beer (the equivalent of 12oz. or 355ml) on Tuesday and Wednesday.

4.) I tolerate the NAL well, and do not feel overly tipsy when drinking.

5.) The first drinks on NAL I felt very agitated, like I was fighting with my brain because I took away its favorite toy or something. Since drinking on the first dose, I have tended to be a grumpy drunk on NAL.

6.) The first couple beers go down fine, but the third and fourth ones are a struggle to down or finish, and for the first time in recent memory I am leaving unfinished beers on the bar.

So I guess things are going well, and as advertised and I hope to be "cured" in more or less a month. My cure (or goal) will be moderate drinking since the moderate use of alcohol is shown to be quite good for middle-aged males and I would like to enjoy a beer every so often with ten spread out over a week being the optimum. In any case, just thought I'd share and I hope someone gets something out of this like I have so many of the posts here...

Welcome, NDF! I get the impression you've done some legwork preparing for this. Most important I hope you have read,' The Cure for Alcoholism' as those who do tend to have better results. It would seem you have an aggressive goal of one month to a cure. While I am rooting for you as you've likely read it can be anywhere from an instant response to as much as a year per your mention of Maggie. Everyone's experience is unique. The important thing is to approach this with patience, compassion towards yourself and it's advised not to force anything and let NAL do its work. Naturally, we'll be glad to help with any questions or concerns. Best...

I appreciate the welcome. I have done quite a bit of research though I have only read the available chapters here. But I do get the premise of the CBT with TSM and think my current pre-TSM regiment of abstinence days (AF) is helping. So is the Harm Reduction info I've looked at. And my goal wasn't necessarily a one month cure, but that is just how things seem to be developing as it seems some report success in as little as five weeks. Realistically, I would wait at least a couple or three months before proclaiming myself 'cured' though.

I had a "tall boy" beer for the Super Bowl and didn't want any more and might string together some AF's this week...

NDF -

As long as you, on the days that you crave alcohol, use Nal 1 hour before you drink, you'll be doing fine. Nal makes me a bit grumpy too, especially when this board eats a long post I was working on.

Welcome to the board! Feel free to post whenever you have a question or want to let us know how you're doing.

Hi Joe,

I notice things seem to be hanging as far as posting, might be a server issue.

I feel very diligent as far as taking NAL before drinking and carry it with me at all times. I have a bit of a quandary though, as I really am not having any serious cravings. So, I guess the choice is should I just go AF? or force myself to drink on NAL to ensure extinction?

I guess I want to continue as a moderate drinker, but I absolutely do not enjoy drinking on NAL. Perhaps its still the honeymoon phase being a bit stormy, IDK. But I suspect I am going to try to drink moderately on NAL, but take more AF days...

NDF -

Here's a post from OptionsSaveLives from a TSM alch abuse counselor, her name is Joanna. It talks about how to proceed when you're starting out if you're a daily drinker vs. a binge drinker, I'm linking to the topic she posted in so as to keep the context:

http://optionssavelives.freeforums.net/ ... olic-years

You might want to connect with her, email her at Joanna@CthreeEurope.com and you can set up a Skype session with her, it's free for TSM'ers. She and Moyra are on the "front lines" and have Dr. Eskapa's ear. Give it a go, I think you'll like it. They originally set this up for folks in the UK that HAD to have a certified counselor as part of their treatment when being prescribed Selincro on the NHS. Selincro (you may have read) does basically the same thing as Naltrexone, but it's metabolized via the kidneys rather than via the liver.

Hey NDF it's my understanding that you should not force anything. If you are forcing yourself to be abstinent for example then you are buying into the AA model and will fall victim to the alcohol deprivation syndrome.

Sounds like you are doing great but you are new to it too so if your binges spike don't fear, just keep at it.

It's interesting to read what you say. It works different for so many people but for me personally I was a binge drinker too though it started getting worse and worse to where my weekend binges would go on for a week with periods of abstinence and then month long binges. But my binge beer was PBR almost always. At $10 bucks a 12 pack ya can;'t go wrong. I'd always have a case of PBR in the garage fridge and some inside the house and would go to grab one of my 'good' beers but pound down a PBR. So for each fine IPA I'd be downing a PBR or two.

Now I only drink beer snob beer. I can't stand the taste of PBR and since I don't need to pound beers down anymore I have not bought it once since I started TSM 7 months ago.

Funny how it works like that huh?

Oh no, I am not forcing anything. Except perhaps forcing myself to down some beers that (for the first time in eons) I do not necessarily want. But I feel like you have to force the extinction to some point.

One thing I'll add to that is there is a difference between temporary abstinence and perceived permanent abstinence, like AA. For instance, the people at HAMS recommend going 30 days without alcohol every once in a while to enable a body to rebound a bit from asymmetric drinking. I've found the alcohol deprivation syndrome might be alleviated a bit if one consciously knows that the abstinence is only temporary...

I do think that temporary abstinence prior to doing TSM may in fact help things along a bit. But I certainly did notice that while it took a couple weeks, I did indeed binge as a result of ADS. But I also noticed a curious similarity in that my tastes changed and that I no longer liked certain beers I had before.

I have been drinking though. It's generally just not the same. I also don't like being in bars like I used too..



I found myself drinking Labatts Blue Lite the other night over Dogfish IPA, something I would have thought as sacrilege not long ago!



Interesting...

Thanks for the link..

Well, it looks like I'll have a forced series of AF days coming up. I am on antibiotics due to an infected finger, so of course I will not drink until next week. No cravings now to speak of.

I have to admit that I feel a bit frustrated since I had a bit of a setback last night and had about 12.5 to 13.5 standard beers (converting from pints to 12 oz/355ml). I was hoping I was trending to not more than four or five a session, but for whatever reason drinking felt alright last night at the bar. Maybe it was the cute female staff, the fact I got some bad news confirmed that I already knew prior, or that I am finally over the cold that has held on for two weeks that pushed me to drink too much. IDK. In any case, at least I have no craving but I definitely binge-spiked upwards. But will look forward to some AF days this weekend.