How long have you had the insomnia? The first week it was terrible to me...I was like awake but not awake..some of the worst insomnia of my life..almost zombie like. It has since went away. But I kind of look at like the well the side of effects of booze are liver disease, heart problems ,broken relationships with family friends and lovers, dwi's, nut wards, jails etc....LOL I will take the insomnia

I am only on day #3 with Naltrexone, so the insomnia has only been going on for two nights. I will let you know if it stays or worsens.

When do you guys usually take your Naltrexone? I usually don't start drinking until 5:00 or 6:00. But lately, I have been taking the Naltrexone at 5:00 or 6:00. Do you guys have an established time when you take your pill? Like do you take it as your leaving work, so that you can have a beer when you get home?

1 hour before I drink, always.

Yeah, I forgot about the initial insomnia that some folks go through. As loop said; one hour before drinking, even if you are an daily evening drinker as I was. The insomnia and bad dreams fade with continued Naltrexone use.

Bob

Yes, one hour, always.

When I started, I took it at work so I could pop ye olde corke just as soon as I got home, as that was my habit. I did that for a number of weeks. Later I would wait until I got home and race to take it, set my countdown timer, and then yank a cork when it went off. At about week 9 I was no longer anxious about needing to start drinking right away when I got home, so started to take it at five or five-thirty, timed so that I could have my first drink with dinner.

Yes, sleep disturbance is a common side effect of naltrexone. I had several violent dreams when I started and committed multiple homicides. I found that the dreams went away after a couple of weeks. For almost everyone with side effects, they almost always go away after your body gets used to the nal.

TSM definitely helps the vast majority who try it to drastically reduce consumption and cravings. Forget the three to four month time frame in the book for "the cure" -- that is wildly off the mark, based upon our experiences here. I'm six and a half months in, not cured, but have drastically cut my intake and cravings. Just focus on your improvement and forget about time frames. You'll find that you have more control when you drink and won't act like such a drunken dope almost immediately after starting TSM. You'll also find that if you had blackouts before, you won't have them as much, if at all, on naltrexone.

The method takes patience but is well worth it. It does work for most people in reducing consumption/cravings.

Good luck.

"when I started and committed multiple homicides,"??? Uhmmm is there some thing we should know about you?

Man, I am really hesitant to make any bold proclamations on just night three with Naltrexone... but I usually sit in my house and pop one beer after another. But for the past three nights, I have seriously nursed each beer, and the time between when I finish one, and get up to get another is longer than I remember. And I usually drink 8-9 beers in a night, but for the past three nights I have had only 4-5.

But the number of beers isn't what's so noteworthy. I am mostly fascinated by the mental clarity that I feel while drinking. The thing that I had grown to absolutely hate about being an alcoholic was the fog; how one beer turned into three, and then into six, and so on and so on. Also, how I would just put on the TV, or sit in front of the computer, and the images or whatever, would just wash over me while I tugged away on a beer. But I feel like my mind is cutting through everything in a way that it hasn't since before the drinking got bad.

This could all be placebo. I could just be really focused on this, and so wanting it to work, that I am just appearing to work, and by this time next month, I will be less impressed with Naltrexone, and will be settling in for the 6-9 month waiting period that most people are reporting.

I am fascinated by this "cured" point that people seem to keep talking about. Is there some point; some line in the sand, where people say, "I am cured!!!"? If so, how do these people arrive at this self-diagnosis?

Read this site my friend, your experience is straight out of TSM 101 and is very typical.

There is no placebo effect with TSM but there is the "honeymoon period": an instant reduction in consumption that is not true extinction, which takes several months. The majority of TSMers experience this immediate decreased interest in boozing and it does not last -- it's your body getting acclimated to naltrexone. Your drinking will almost inevitably increase back up to pre-TSM levels pretty soon, so do not be alarmed when that happens. TSM is a roller coaster ride and your improvement is not linear, it's all over the map. The increased clarity while drinking however, is not temporary, and you will continue to have that while drinking on naltrexone.

The great news for you personally is that naltrexone does not work for about 20% or so who try it. And I have yet to read a single person on this board experience an immediate decrease in drinking who later reports that TSM is not working for them. So it looks like you are in the 80% that TSM works for. As I said before, the time frames for a "cure" in the book are crap and vary wildly with the individual. Read "The Cured" thread for more details, but most people who have declared themselves cured drink "like normal people" and are no longer obsessed with alcohol. And yes, it is a very subjective label with different people defining it in different ways.

Hi there,

Besides the effects on receptors in the brain, to be on Nal also means delearning and relearning.

As we know from Escapas book Naltrexone has effects on certain receptors in the brain. To be on Nal also means delearning an relearning. My doctor asked me, if I can ride a bike. Of course I can. Then he asked me how it was to learn to ride a bike, if I can remember.

Yes, to learn to ride a bike I had to fall down again and again until I learned! I think we are in this process of delearning and relearning, and to relearn we occasionally start carving more, like time pre TMS.

Please ignore my mistakes in English cause it's not my own language.

Good luck
Helsinki

You have better written English than most of us native speakers of the language!

No apologies are necessary.

Bob