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:

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

NOTE: I had to edit because I realized I just started week 6 yesterday!!

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?

I think that's an important point Lena- I was just thinking as I opened my second drink tonight that I could really have ignored the craving as it isn't that strong- but I haven't ignored it, I must drink to get better

I will start charting my craving everyday too.

Hi Lena - I have only posted once before because I have not yet received my Nal and have not started treatment yet. However I just started charting my cravings last night using the book's index so that I can see progress once I start.

Just wanted to let you know that I decided to do the charting now because of one of your posts from last week (it was about how hard it is to wait for the results to start showing, wondering whether you are in the 20% for which the treatment does not work). So - I was very glad to see you post this and see that you are suggesting everyone do the same! I am hoping to get my meds this Friday and will definitely chart my cravings along with consumption on this site.

Hang in there - the cravings decrease seems to really be the distinguishing factor for this treatment and why it ultimately can be seen as a cure, and looks like you are making progress!

And - thank you for all of the information you have posted - you are helping a lot of others, even if we do not post often. And I am sure we are all rooting for you

~ Happy

happy4once -- Thanks for the kind words. This little community seems to be flourishing after just a few short days. It's what we had hoped: a rich source of information and a safe place for frank discussion. We all are building it together, and I'm grateful.

I've got a great opportunity to extinguish a trigger in a few days: travel.

Air travel has done at least as much to fuel my alcohol addiction as any other life activity in recent years. For the past 3 years or so, I've logged an insane amount of air miles while practicing my profession. It's gone way down in the past few weeks, but it was a welcome distraction while in the throes of a nasty divorce.

Let me share a few secrets about frequent air travel: It's a bunch of alcoholics with license to indulge. After a certain level of miles, you automatically get a free first class upgrade every time you fly. The main feature is not the leg room; it's all the free booze you can drink. The flight attendants know it. They do not bat an eye at anyone asking for booze on a 5:00 a.m. flight. They cheerfully refill a wine glass four, five or more times during a flight. Bonus: They start serving you booze before the other passengers even board!! Those of us "up front" know that hardly anyone pays for first class; as a fellow traveler once put it to me, we are the ones who have to travel so much we don't have a life. And it's amazing how much free booze gets consumed every flight.

Then there's the mysterious club. Every airport has them, run by one airline or another. Frosted glass doors, not well-marked. I have a several-year membership to one. Yes, there are comfy chairs and business desks. But the real action is at the several self-service bars stationed throughout the club, where fellow alcohol addicts are making ourselves doubles and going back for more in between flights. It's a real boozefest.

My ex-husband had an all-purpose saying,"I drank like I was afraid I was not going to get enough." That describes frequent-flying alcohol addicts to a tee. I'm glad I'll have the opportunity to extinguish that behavior.

Meanwhile, the miles have earned me the chance to take my two young-adult kids on a great vacation this Spring and by then I should be on my way to having the alcohol under control!

Hi Lena,
Funny you should mention air travel. For me, it curtails my drinking but I had to make it so.

I quit flying first class couple of years ago. Because I go Madallion by March, I use to turn down free upgrades. Besides it madfe my budget more happy. The probelm was the free drinks and since I either had to drive on the other end of my flight (exception for foreign travel since I would often be picked up by limo), or be picked up by VIPs, I had to stay sober. It really sucked. Here was this unlimited booze, sometimes for 6 hours. Give me my viscotti and Jack Daniels please. But I couldn't drink.

Since Nal, I returned to 1st class. Nicer seats and I get on and off the plane first. Yet now I don't fear going crazy and arriving at the plant totally blown out of my socks. I take my Nal before boarding and I might drink a complementary drink or two and take a nap. Upon arrivsal, I am good to go.

I was describing this difference to my wife and then I read your post.

God, life is so good. If only we could sell something! Anyone need an automatic food distribution system?