I definitely think that Willpower eventually comes into play. If you have done ANYTHING every night for 10-15 years, then no matter how many pills you take to block whatever chemicals that reinforce whatever. You will still continue to do it, until you say, "Not tonight."

My therapist has been thinking of Naltrexone as a helper; a means to an end. He says, "If you can take a pill that can get that monkey off your back long enough for you to gain some perspective, then I am all for it." In our last session, he even admitted that he was wrong for trying to get me to prematurely stop drinking on TSM, and that although the Sinclair Method goes against all of his formal training as a counselor, he is always open to new things, and that I should follow the program as described by Dr. Sinclair and Dr. Eskapa.

So, I plan to relax, and let Naltrexone do what it is reported to be able to do... cure my alcoholism.

I had a huge dip in units/day in the beginning, but I am noticing my graph starting to climb to almost pre-naltrexone levels. This is said to be normal, so I am just going to ride with it. I am no longer feeling that intense clarity of mind that I once felt when I first started taking Naltrexone. In the beginning, I felt as if I was completely in control. The beers even tasted differently. I could sit in a room full of my friends and family as they all drank to the point of being drunk, and I was fully aware, and clear headed as I nursed 3, maybe 4 beers instead of my normal 12.

But now I am waking up with hangovers again, and the drinks don't that strange extra-strong flavor that they had during those first weeks. So, now I am settling in for a long winter with Naltrexone. I just hope to be alcohol free (or at least alcohol managed) by springtime at the end of April. But I am not putting a time limit on anything. I am just going to keep taking Naltrexone, and plugging in my numbers on the Excel spreadsheet, and watching the graph.

Wish me luck guys!

I am wishing you tons of luck Pisces!!! I am still at that point where the booze tastes and smells gross, I wish this would last forever. Well maybe not forever, but I sure wish I could drink normaly anyways. I think you are a month ahead of me? Weirdly these last ten days seem so long and so short at the same time. Wishing you tons of good thoughts towards your goal of winning this battle by spring. I too would like to be in the same boat. We both needs tons of Nal, luck, faith and a big dash of will-power! Go Horns!

I agree Hawkeye. There comes a point where you have the choice of drinking as you always have, or consciously not drinking with minimal effort.

Yup - pisces, I have posted elsewhere it takes some willpower and just listening to your body & senses, and just breaking a habit. But I truly think NAL works - maybe not as overwhelmingly obvious on everyone...but surely in some small way on everyone.

Good luck to you & looking forward to seeing your progress!

XO

Yeah willpower is ultimately the only thing we have between us and weighing 400 lbs, blowing our paychecks every month on the first day, drinking all the alcohol we can ingest, and... well you get the picture.

With Naltrexone, I think that it is important however to NOT let willpower get in the way of the neurological pathway extension process that made you an alcoholic in the first place. Now, I am not a doctor. I am in no way even cured by Naltrexone yet. I am posting this as a sort of hopeful projection of how this will go for me.

But willpower or not... Naltrexone has been an absolute all out miracle for me so far.

It cut my will to drink in HALF overnight, and then I have been able to drink a little more as time has gone on, but for the past three nights, I have kept it under 4 drinks per night, just because I can. Whereas before Naltrexone, there was NO stopping me until I'd flop in bed wasted every night.

So, I am completely stoked about this medication, and I think that ultimately I may owe my life to it.

You should definitely "drink as you normally drank" for the first several months on naltrexone. True extinction of your addiction will take several months. After that, you will notice a fine line between drinking out of "habit" versus drinking out of "craving" or "need." It's a fine line that we all need to be aware of and identify for ourselves. I guess the best way to assess it is to say to yourself, "I'm not drinking today" and stick with it, unless you start having obsessive thoughts about drinking. Obsessive thoughts serve as an indicator that you are still addicted and need to continue with extinguishing the addiction by drinking through it on naltrexone. But it definitely is not an issue until true extinction has occurred and that takes three to four months minimum (per the book) and probably more like six plus months in the "real world."

Clarification: if you used to drink 12 a night and only feel like having 4 now with naltrexone, I'm not suggesting that you should drink 12. At any time under this method if you don't feel like continuing to drink, then stop. Drinking "as you normally drank" really refers to time, place and situations that trigger you to drink, not matching the quantities you once drank.

According to Dr. Eskapa, extinction takes at least three to four months. Page 104. In addition, outside of you AJ, there has not been a single person on this board who makes the claim that their addiction was extinguished in only one month. You are clearly a very tiny exception to the rule, both as defined by Eskapa as well as the "real life" experiences on this board. As accurately stated above, true extinction takes at minimum, three to four months according to Dr. Eskapa. And for almost all of us on this board, extinction takes in excess of five to six months, at minimum.

Roxy uses a little willpower to pound out 2-4 AF days per week now. She says the cravings have become manageable for the most part. Trigger events and planned drinking are the exceptions. These AF days were simply not an option before TSM. Out of 4 AF days last week, she had two with 0 cravings, and the other two were higher, but easily manageable. While it might take longer for extinction to occur, I think these planned AF days are positive in her case.
She still drinks too much per session, and I wonder if that will change. Especially on Sauna night. LOL.

Why do you talk about yourself in the 3rd person? Is that some kind of new trend or are you just being cute and quirky?

When Roxy talks it's either him or his wife on the keyboard, usually him. In this case he is talking about Roxy, his wife. He is a wonderfully supportive SO.