Hey all -- I posted this awhile back and wanted to start a new topic instead of just bumping, since it seems to be a timely topic.

Hey all - I've been reluctant to post my consumption. I am well over the honeymoon at week five, and had a spike to higher than pre-nal drinking. But I still felt progress. I flipped through Eskapa's book and realized why: Consupmtion may be holding, but craving is steadily down in intensity.

What I mean is, if a craving is there, I'll drink and not fight it. But the intensity used to be such that if I saw an ad for alcohol I'd "need" to start drinking. I had to read and post on MWO early morning when I did not crave, because later in the day reading and thinking about alcohol would make me "need" to log off and get a drink.

On page 115-116, Exkapa discusses craving levels and says we should assess these on a weekly basis. Shall we share that along with our consumption? His illustration is a linear scale the Visual Analog Scale of Alcohol Craving or VAS). We are to imagine a situation where we typically would be drinking and plot how badly we would want a drink:

If alcohol were available,
<__________________________________________________________>
I would not want it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I could not
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . resist drinking it


It's tough to replicate the graph on a post, so what if we all, with our weekly consumption, report a craving # on a scale of 0-10?

Here's been my progress [edit: at that time]:

pre: 60units; craving 9
wk1: 22units; craving 2
wk2: 40 units; craving 6
wk3: 68 units; craving 6
wk4: 70 units; craving 6
wk5: 62 units; craving 5
wk6: in progress

I suspect what some of us in the past few weeks (myself included) have been trying to describe in terms of alcohol loosening its grip is the intensity of craving going down. The craving may still be there to be indulged, but it's not that desperate, what-am-I-gonna-do-if-I-can't-get-a-drink feeling. Eskapa says it's important to chart our progress on that front as well. What do you think?

Alot of us are seeing a similar spike around this exact time in our own Sinclair Method journey. I've had a few really rough days around this time, the followed it with AF days, so my weekly totals don't necessarily reflect my spike,

Someone, maybe it was Robert, made the comment that a spike such as this weeks into treatment was our brain trying to compensate for the lack endorphines. This makes alot of sense in my own personal experience.

I have the same experience as you, Lena. Just into week seven, my drinking is up, but my craving is down. It doesn't make sense!

Yesterday took a Nal around 3 p.m. when a bit of shakiness set in and I felt a drink would help. An hour later, I didn't really care all that much for a drink - but poured a glass of wine to have while preparing to go out shopping. (A tradition of mine.) Turns out the shakiness was likely not related to alcohol withdrawal after all. (I tend to blame AL for everything!) My SO and I weren't feeling really great (may have got some bad shrimp the day b/4), but headed out to do some much-needed shopping anyway. Got home a couple hours later, still a bit under the weather. I could have cared LESS about drinking. . .but the old habit of going out and meeting our crew of friends drew us out. We got to the little bar we frequent, and it was hoppin'. Ordered our usual poison (me, Chard, him, beer). Again, I really was not craving the wine, but the drinks and company did help perk us up and make us feel better. I drank the wine very slowly (for me) through the night. Didn't get snockered at all, and had a wonderful, mellow evening with our friends.

So yes, I think your idea of rating the craving is a good one. I'll summarize my experience in my signature.

Lena - I know you from MWO - I'm new so I'm doing a lot of posting today. I think the consumption/craving issue is the most interesting and strange one in Sinclair. I'm only 11 days in, and I am questioning myself more before I take the next drink, but
I've been drinking for so long that I'm not sure I can even measure craving correctly. The other night I realized that I did a few tasks around the house without "moving" my glass from location to location, so obviously my craving had been affected by the Nal. BUT drinking is WHAT I DO, so even if my body tells me that I don't necessarily want another drink, I do it out of habit. I'm a drinker. I look forward to this thread. I'm going to write down those times when I was able to slow down a little. That makes more sense to me than trying to assign a number to my cravings - it is hard for me to scale cravings at least for now. Thanks for this post. Best to all!

Thanks for re-postin this Lena.

About time - I think it's safe to start your cravings at 10...when they start to change, you will notice. It sounds like you are seeing subtle changes, which is great, but if you don't feel the cravings are actually less, just keep it at 10. There is no race here, so you can stay at 10 until you start to notice a difference.

It will happen with time.

Right now my problem isn't craving, per se. It's the uncomfortable, tense sense of withdrawal that sends me to the Naltrexone tablet, and then the bottle. It sets in just about this time of day - a little later when I've had a lighter night of drinking the night before. Yesterday was a doozy. Really had a lot of fun out with a gang of friends, and planned to head home around 9. But then the bar owner poured me and my SO another round on him, so we stuck around. Next thing, we decided to drop in to see some other friends at another nearby bar. Then, b/c I'd already gone two beyond what I intended, I poured a nightcap when we got home. Ugh!!! Did not want to get out of bed today.

I'm going to tough out the symptoms for awhile today. If I'm not feeling back to snuff by 4 or 5, then maybe I'll try just a little 'hair of the dog.' If I can't get another AF day, I'd be content to at least lower my consumption by half. But boy. . .an AF day would be great!!!