Hey all, getting ready to take the plunge and seeing the doc tomorrow.

I'm not sure how acquainted he is with nal and tsm and am wondering how to approach him, letting him know that this is what I want to do. I have by the way read Eskapa's book and done my own research and feel confident that I can explain the concept well to him.

Has anyone brought the book into their doctor's office and had them look at the "For Medical Professionals" chapter? Anyone brought in notes to share? How prepared are/were you when you first approached your doctor about getting on tsm?

On the other end of the scale, with the ability to obtain nal from online pharmacies, does anyone have experience ordering their prescription and following tsm without a Dr's help?


Thanks for everything, this forum has been very helpful for me begining my journey!

Hi and welcome,

I went to my doctor totally armed with the book and other information. My dr. made it clear that this was not his area of expertise so I just said I wanted Nal to reduce cravings with no other details. He looked up Nal in his book, saw that it said it was used to reduce cravings and wrote a prescription. That simple. I think I was lucky.

When I went to my follow up app't after a month, I said it was working (lie, it doesn't work that fast) and gave him Dr. Sinclair's name and some detail of the method. He was going to look into it but who knows...

Psychiatrists are quite willing to prescribe "benign" meds such as Naltrexone for craving reduction, although they might try to talk you into Campral as mine initially did.

Psychiatrists are very wary (as they should be) of folks who come in to ask for psychoactive substances, such as benzos and others I won't go into here. Once you gain their trust, they'll prescribe almost anything, if they see you need it. But Naltrexone, you can get from any shrink on the first visit without specifically stating how you will be taking it. Ultimately, it does what everyone wants and that is to reduce the cravings to virtually nil.

Bob

Whether or not you tel your M.D. the "whole" story, some m.d.'s might not be entirely comfortable with prescribing anything for alcoholism unless they think you also are in some other type of treatment, or at least A.A. Nick brought the N.Y. Times article in this link to his doctor. It sort of describes TSM without calling it by name. But most importantly, it describes studies that confirm naltrexone may be prescribed by the general practicioner as primary care for alcohol treatment.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... one&st=cse

You'd probably be wise to bring print this and bring it along with you.

Best of luck and let us know how it went.

Well, my doc wasn't very receptive to the idea and I had him read about three pages of material about TSM. Said that he didn't feel qualified even though Nal has been approved for general practitioners to prescribe. I did get him to give me a liver function test though.

I know that many will probably disagree with this but I went ahead and ordered a four month supply from alldaychemist. I doubt I would have gotten someone to give me a prescription in Eastern Oregon (read: middleofnowhere) where I am right now.

I'm excited about starting and am looking forward to a brighter future!

Correction, Rockola: the consensus here is that if you have to beg, steal or borrow to get naltrexone, do it! By any means necessary!

Welcome to the club.

PS

A lot of these doctors are very squeamish about prescribing a safe, FDA-approved drug. I am hoping some day, after a few have been successfully sued for breach of fiduciary duty to provide the best care possible, as well as medical malpractice, that perhaps they'll be more squeamish about NOT prescribing naltrexone.

Thanks for the warm welcome all! I'll be back with updates soon!

Does someone remember a few weeks ago someone here posted a link that showed 6 printed pages of research on NAL + drinking=cure? It was great! Rockola if it wasn't here that I found it I will locate it for you. I read the TSM book, was ready to explain the whole theory of TSM and handed my doc all the research papers. He looked at me like a deer in lights and said to try another method and I said I would if he told me of a method with a cure, hence he prescribed me NAL. Remember when you go in your the customer not them (it's still a business) and being totally knowledgeable helps. Good luck.

Corkit:

I love your style.

Nick