Hey guys, I am in week 20, and I have to say hopeful, but here's my question. When you were 'cured', how did you know? I no longer obsessively think about alcohol, but still, once i start drinking, I drink far more than I'd like to, almost always. I get drunk. (though I don't get the 'high' feeling per se.) I guess I just want to know if it was like a light switch going off or what? i mean compared to last spring, the change is huge, as far as control in my life and over drinking, but I am still drunk a lot of times in the evenings. ??? how will i know if it's really curing me? how did you just 'know'? thanks!

Yes. Week 21 for me. Drinking rather suddenly did not interest me as much anymore. Consequently, my units dropped significantly. I waited until my units were below NIAAA guidelines for a couple of weeks before declaring victory. My units per week have been below those guidelines for over 8 weeks now. Rarely, I will have too much on a single evening, but I still remained within the NIAAA standard.

In short, I chose a national standard for moderate drinking AND my desire for alcohol plummetted. That's how I knew I was cured.

Hope this helps.

Bob

kinda, but i don't know those guidelines...i guess i wanted to pick ur brain a little more there dear. how did it feel i mean, was there a definitive turning point or was it gradual, i guess is what i am asking. thanks=)

It was a cascade of events that hit within a short period of time (within a week?). I felt like I didn't want to start drinking some days, other days I just didn't want the next drink. To me the overwhelming alcohol taste was ruining the taste of the drink. These feelings continue to this day. I had 4 beers in the fridge I wanted to get rid of on Tuesday. After the third which I could barely finish, I opened and dumped the 4th one down the sink. I felt repulsed by it and didn't want it in my house. The next morning I thought all I needed to do was toss the carton and stow the bottle in the back of the fridge which would have accomplished the same thing. But my emotional response after Tuesday's 3rd beer was to get rid of that filthy beverage.

To me each drinking session begins in one of two ways. I feel like relaxing and decide I'll have a drink and take my Naltrexone. I wait an hour and then almost invariably I don't want to drink, but I know I need something to extinguish so I grab the first drink.
1) About a half the time, that first drink is great; it's relaxing and refreshing. Each drink thereafter is less satisfying, until I don't even like it any more. The alcohol taste becomes overwhelming.
2) About half the time, I don't care for the first drink. The second one is better and so on.

Type 1 drinking is becoming more and more common now (2 out of 2 times this week) and I think it's how normal people drink. If you think about it, it's almost like eating, let's say, pretzels; the first few are great; the next several are OK; more than that is not very appetizing and we eventually stop eating them.
Type 2 drinking appears to be remnants of the old alcoholic style of drinking with the exception that it's hard to even get started.

In short, suddenly in the TSM treatment (week 20ish for me) I didn't want to drink most of the time and when I did it was mostly a negative experience, unless I kept the units very low. Last week, I remember having one drink. It tasted good. I felt relaxed and I didn't have any more that day and I was AF the next 3 days. That's the way I want it to be all the time. But nowadays, it's often more satisfying just staying AF every day which I feel is where this treatment is eventually heading.

Hope this helps.

Bob

Bob,

Thanks for sharing - I've been wondering about the same thing... how it actually FEELS when you're close to the cure. I'm assuming it's impossible to miss

Every sign is happening or has happened so slowly that it's hard to imagine that within 1 week, it could be game over. I want that week to start!!!

I have almost always experienced the type 2 type of drinking bob mentioned since about the 2 month or so on naltrexone...until friday! friday, i woke up with something of a cold and went out for chinese food that evening my my kid and my bf. i had one sake, which was very nice and soothing on my throat and went well with the chinese food, relaxing, etc...when i got home, i thought i'd have some wine, blech! didn't even WANT IT! i forced myself to drink about 21/2 glasses b/c i really could't believe it that i didn't want it, but i really couldn't drink anymore than that, i mean i could of, but it would have been forcing it. sat woke up with a full blown cold, however, that wouldn't have stopped me in my drinking before, just would have made hot toddy's or something and got sloshed, but i really didn't want ANYTHING to drink! today, i feel a little better, and around about 4 (liquor store closes at 5 around here) I thought about going to get some wine, but since i had been taking theraflu (acetaminephin) and the craving was about a 2, i thought better of it (don't want my liver to explode after all) and brushed it off. UNHEARD OF! WOW! Granted I am a bit under the weather, but that wouldn't have stopped me before, in fact just in the beginning of August i had a severe cold that lasted 10 whole days and i drank every single night. the agitation and compulsion is just waning and it's coming on rather suddenly, it's almost as if i can rationalize like a normal person, 'hey, you are taking a drug that says don't drink on it (acetaminephin), best not to drink." this would NOT have happened before, not even 2 weeks ago=) !!!!!!!!!