For this honeymoon period all can say is wow. I started TSM this past Sat and have drank everyday since then. I am bing drinker usually not a daily thing. My mother passed away last sept, the economy tanked my career, finances were a mess, I moved to a small beach town from a large metroplitian area, I went from a lot friends to nothing, and my fiance came with me. I was never so depressed in my life so I drank. For the last year my fiance and I litterally broke up once a week. The pattern is always the same I beg her back...I walk the line for a week we end up in a disagreement..me sober at the time..she leaves and BANG binge time and this makes everything her and I impossible but it also keeps me in the pits of depression..hell would be more accurate. She has dumped me yet again saturday..my start date for TSM..was a PERFECT time to try the pill..I took one hour before...Had the intent to drift off to never never land (black-out)..couldnt do it. Tried again sunday..took the pill..couldnt do it 4-5 drinks both days. For me thats unheard of..my tolerance on one of these binges could be a fifth of Crown Royal and 18-20 beers over 12 hrs till I fall. Monday I stopped at happy hour...Trying to get out of my hermit state...3 drinks..wanted to stay longer than I did..but didnt want to drink...more the socialization. Being dumped for the holidays suck but then again all the break ups we have had I should be used to holiday and birthday dumps by now. My sister was like you are not gonna sit here by yourself for the holidays lets go back to the city..Last night I was with some old friends my buddy knew i was coming and had a fith of crown..again wow I had 2 drinks..This is a situation I would usually be downing drinks so fast and furious and be drunk wasted inside of an hour and half and then drinking to maintain my buzz while BSing with an old friend. My sister was in utter shock at the amount I drank. I have no one giving me ****..I am way past 21 and can do what I want no wife no kids no anything to feel guilty or someone standing over me telling me watch it. I know what booze is doing to me so I feel guilty but we all know how much our addictive guilt alone stops us from having one to many..always in my head I would be like well F it..tommrrows a new day. But tommrrow never comes. As far as my relationship goes my attitude is I was dumped it sucks it hurts but I CAN NOT BEG to be loved anymore. You could set your watch by our pattern..good for a week..silly argument..she leaves and BANG i'm done off the deep end. Mabey if I was sober things would not have gotten to were they did with us, if I was sober mabey down the line it would work out, but at this point I feel like I am in a fight for my life and regaining my sanity. So hence my attitude I will not beg a person to love me. This cycle has to end along with the booze. I beleive deep down if I can remove the booze the depression will lift or become managble and I can take my life back. I am taking lexapro but my therapyst is like hey if you want to continue to drink at the levels you do why take it? AL conteracts everything the anidepressant is suppose to do. I know all the basics to get out of this year long hell - one foot in front of the other, diet, exercise, sociliazation, working full time, keeping organized etc but the binges destroy all motivation...insanity of addiction I suppose. why the "normal" people around me are like woah snap out out of it...if booze does this to you dont drink it...LOL wish it was that simple.

Anyways tonight is going to be a huge experiment for me - I feel like one of Sinclaires rats LOL - I am getting together with like 10-15 old friends from pre highschool days at one of their houses - the annual pre-thanksgiving party - this is always a HUGE party..hell they are all big drinkers and the drinking starts around 3-4pm and will go to like 3am...If the honeymoon is still lasting they are going to be SHOCKED...LOL I will be to. I know this this honeymoon has given me something I have NOT felt for a solid year HOPE to take my life back.

A Giant welcome crown86.

Thank you for the very honest post and background. I can relate on many levels. I too am a binge drinker. My longest sober binge was a white knuckled event that lasted 10 years, beginning in AA. During these 10 years, I took with me falicies that I learned in AA. Looking back it was mainly the fear that I could do without, and the dread of living the rest of my life in boredom with no social life always running away from a situation that would lead me to the first drink. Ultimately, through a series of events, I did do that first drink again. At first it wasnt that bad, but quickly lost control to an even greater extent that I previously had.

Desperately seeking an answer to this problem, I attempted to go back to AA. I quickly learned why I left the first time around. Simply not for me. Dont get me wrong, I send out a big rah rah to those currently following thier program, and hope they make it the rest of thier life without a drink if that is what they want. But if and when.....when, they have that first drink again, we will all be waiting here for them to join us in extinguishing our habits and addictions through TSM, with open arms.



The binges...yep those binges. Everything is going fine for a few days, you finally start feeling great about yourself after feeling horrible from the last binge, and what do we do???? Celebrate by binging again. The cycle starts over.

As many of us have found out, AL is a depressant, hangovers naturally cause you to look at everything through glasses that are tainted with a negative light. Everything seems to be falling down. Even those things that you used to think were good situations seem bad.

Anyway, Ive been on TSM since the end of July. I too had the "honeymoon" affect. But more in terms of side affects making me just not want to drink. In the beginning I have had a few hangovers and they seem to be much worse than pre TSM, which is a great deterent from drinking too much on any occasion. What TSM has given me is the ability to now avoid those hangovers. I guess you could call it control.

You could say that I am a very good example of TSM working. Progress seems to vary on the amount of time one has been reinforcing thier habit. Because I had that long sober stint I guess my reinforcement wasnt as great as others, so TSM is quickly extinguishing my habit.

Keep in mind, the TSM journey is a roller coaster. Drinking levels normally go up after the "honeymoon" period and some times back to pre TSM levels. Dont let this discourage you. You already know that its working because youve seen it first hand, just keep it in mind in times that you feel things may not be moving fast enough for you.

Take your Nal an hour before hand, and preferably NOT on an empty stomache. Plan ahead and keep your Nal close to you just in case. (Im sure Nick will be here to give you some great insight and pointers too)

TSM has been the greatest blessing for my wife and I. We now have a social life without worrying about what I might do or say on any given occasion that involves alcohol. In fact I drink much less than my wife now. I do not have any embarrassing moments from AL any more, no blackouts, I pretty much have the power to avoid a hangover and I chose the days I want to drink. AL is just not that important to me any longer, my biggest thing is a need to be social, in my circle that includes AL.

Sorry to be so long winded. Again welcome to the forum and we look forward to hearing all about your journey. Please post often.

hapful

Ok guys I AM IN SHOCK still. I hung out with my buddys from before highschool. The total intent was to get wasted and bs and have a great time. I brought a fifth of whiskey and barley touched it...I had one drink out of it all night. I got there at 7pm and partied till 3am. I drank beer the whole time which for me is astounding. I usually hate beer and so much more prefer whiskey for the effect or buzz is way stronger and way faster. Other funny thing is usually never count drinks..but since I have made up my mind to take my life back from AL counting is nessacary. 7pm - 3am I had 9 beers was barley drunk and didnt care and had a blast. This is crazy to me, in a situation like this I usually would have downed the whole fifth plus beer. There is no one stopping me from drinking or giving me crap. I went to the party with the intent of getting ripped but it never happened. Next day thanksgiving...lol usually this would be one big party start drinking at noon and go till 2am with the family. I had 2 beers and a glass of wine at dinner...Unbeleivable. Friday saw another friend had 6 beers and 2 glasses of wine from 2pm till 11pm. I know this sounds like alot and and the 10 I had at the party on wensday but for me its a damn miracle...these situation would almost 100% be 20+ drink night over the amount of time spent. The best part of this to me is I go into drinking situations with the intent to get ripped and it just doesnt happen...not that I dont want it to it just doesnt happen. Loving this honeymoon period...if this is what the future will be with AL I'm loving it.

Forgot one other thing I am so happy about..this holiday weekend by today I would be in such bad shape I could barley type from shaking hands based on all the partying and just feeling like I was dead...I feel great...wow wow wow is All I can say.

Wow crown! That's great!

As far as side effects go and doasge I started out on the 50mlg I did not do 25 25 then 50. My body generally tolerates medicine well. The only side effect I have experienced was some of the most bizzare insomnia I have ever experienced in my life. But the way i see it the HELL drinking causes vs insomnia..I choose insomnia. My whole purpose in documenting my TSM experience is 2 fold. 1. It helps me and 2. if someone is out there looking for help and they can relate I sincerly hope my journey will help in some way.

Week 1 officially over. I had a total of 43 units. To me this is a damn miracle. I know to alot of "normal" people think this is even alot of drinks in a week. But for me considering the week I had it is nothing short of a miracle. I had every Major trigger thrown my way - Fiance dumped me last sat over my drinking, 3 parties with old friends, the holiday - man I would have been on a week long binge. Even tonight I had every intent to get ripped - trigger just back home from traveling for the holiday fiance gone feeling lonely..whats a drunk to do...Black out time. Stopped at the store..then realized I had booze from last weekend at home...Unheard of. I drank 2.5 beers tonight.left the third unfinished I never leave a beer unfinished..for some odd reason and really dont know why my drink of choice blended whiskey sits alone and untouched on my kitchen counter. My pre-TSM is hard for me to accuratly figure a unit count out because I primarily binged and my tolarance was bizzare I could drink a fifth and sometimes 20 beers with it...just depended on the trigger and how long the binge would last. i would binge some weeks 3-4 days some 2days..some 1 day..minmum 1 day. I would have to say my pre-TSM would be 80ish us units. I know I have a ways to go but thank-god for TSM and the person that sent me the PM about it.

Well just got wind of another trigger one I thought I had under control..finances just found out one of my houses tripled in property tax from 4K to 12K F***K. Icant never seem to win lately..just popped my pill..so much for my intent to be AF.

Take it easy buddy!

I was a bad boy last night. after getting notice of my new tax bill and missing the fiance sitting at home alone I said F it poped my nal waited an hour and plowed through 11 drinks. 2 whiskeys and 9 beers. I am not discouraged by this in the least. Last night with my emotional state of anxiety over money and feeling lonely it could have been an easy 20+ drink night with a bunch of phone calls to the fiance and friends and family with all my wackyness. I didnt black out. I was mostly under control. Drunk yes but a different kind of drunk. Funny I love talking with normal people - I called my sister was whinning to her about my new tax bill she was like well dont drink...LOL..it's the first thing that enters my mind is to drink..Got to love the insanity of addiction. I never even admitted to myself that I truly had a problem till I went 30+ days cold turkey and fell off the wagon. All the wacked out incidences and such and I'm like yep I'm fine I got a handle on it..LOL.

Funny I never used to drink everyday but since TSM I have. Its almost like I am so focused on my problem I feel like I should be drinking. I am going to try like hell to make a concious effort to just "go with the flow" and if the craving come take my nal wait an hour and go drink.