This is a copy of my week 12 post..please add my name to the list

Week 12 ending Feb 13

Verdict - Cured or in complete control whatever you want to call it and on the road to abstinence

I am ready to add myself to the cured list. I spent the last week snowed in at friends house out of town. In the past this would have meant while eveyone was shopping for bread and milk I would have been stocking up on half gallons of whiskey at the liquor store and beer. Lets see for a solid week of being snowed in That would have been 4 half gallons and 3 30 packs and a fifth or two or some cordial for shots. This storm I bought a six pack for the week...LOL me buy a six pack? My friends are drinkers and they partied..me I had like 1-2 beers per day to be social. I had no intention of getting drunk. I enjoyed the company completely sober and never felt I was missing something by not partying.

My guess is I will be abstinent in a month...beer is last to go. I can't an no longer drink whiskey as I get sick eveytime I try it. I tried a glass of wine last week an was sick during the first glass - thank god based on all that I have read here about wine and TSM...it was never my thing anyways..whiskey or any hard liquour was my thing. 98% of the time beer is unapealing and the 2% of the time it actually tastes good anymore I never drink more than 4 over about a 3 hour period.

When I first found TSM I couldn't even imagine abstinence. Now it is coming with ease and I feel zero pressure to quit...it's like it's a natural thing to do. I am hand and knees greatful this treatment exists and worked as well as it has for me. I remember back in november reading the posts here and thinking I am glad it's working for some but it probably won't for me with my luck... I remember reading AJ's weekly progress and thought man that would be like winning the lottery..the odds..me..lol will never happen...damn if it didn't. It worked from day one and just kept destroying my tolerance and obsession with alcohol. It was the honeymoon that never stopped. My drinking never returned to my normal levels...it dropped by 2/3 thirds and went lower from there until it to the point I can no longer drink hard liquour on the rocks without vomiting.

Right before I started TSM I had friends and family suggesting rehab detox the works, which of course I refused. These people are all in shock over how little drink when I drink now...I am still in shock to an extent. I stopped therapy and anti-depressants around the time I started TSM figuring once I got a handle on booze I would resume both, but in the interim figured with my drinking I was wasting my time with both. I feel I don't need therapy nor anti depressants at all at this point. I am not oppossed to either but with booze no longer destroying my life and killing me my life fell right back into place. Same BS and stress of life is still there but oh so managable now and actually challenging and fun again. The biggest thing for me with booze gone I am relatively happy and content and have peice of mind back. I still have a hard time beleiving a paper back around 20 bucks and some pills online for 200 something bucks "fixed" me. I would like to say thank-you to all of you who have participated in this forum as it as been invaluable to me...the book plus this forum is awsome.

Dr Sinclair and DR Eskapa - If you guys ever read this thread thank-you from the bottom of my heart for all your hard work and research. You guys have saved my life.

Congratulations, that is just great news and just what I needed to read this morning.

Wonderful news!! Your story is so interesting - especially about the depression and anxiety stuff. So true - some of us were on the merry-go-round of which comes first and which goes first: booze or depression/anxiety. For you, and me, once the self-medication of booze goes, the other stuff seems more manageable.

Your success, and amazement about it, is a very strong boost to those newbies who lurk! I have a dear, dear, dear loved one who simply is not "ready" to try naltrexone - I suspect him to be afraid that the unhappiness and anxiety will be overwhelming if the booze is not there as a cushion. What a surprise he would find that once the mind clears things really are better. How I pray more people will give this a try (or baclofen) and free themselves from this horrible "medication" we know as alcohol.

I'm just so happy for you, I'm at a loss for words. I hope you'll stick around -- Your posts always are a good read and you are so helpful to others. .

Sweet! Fantastic!

Stick around my friend, your input is invaluable.

I'm adding you to the list.

My best,

Nick

Guys and Girls

Thank you...Yes I am sticking around...I plan tell anyone who has a problem with alcohol about TSM if they care to listen.

BGH - Man it's SO TRUE what you wrote about your friend...It's so damn hard to see the thing we think is comforting us is destroying us...life is SO MUCH easier without the booze but the hard part is seeing that or beleiving that looking though a shot glass...have to break the glass then look...hard I know...but this treatment at least for me made it so much easier...I think just the fact I could still drink made it that much easier almost painless...I mean how hard is taking a pill 1 hour before drinking as you normally would...the side effects were nowhere close to the side effects of alcohol, which are long lasting whereas Naltrexone faded in a week to ten days. I hope your friend eventually gives it go

BGH -also a huge congradulations to you also just saw your name on the list

So happy for you, Crown! I just read your progress and it's amazing where you've been and where you are now. I am reading "Heal Thyself" new title of Dr. Ameisen's book "The End of My Addiction" - his story sounds alot like yours...only worse...and NAL didn't work for him.

So glad it did for you!! Congratulations & hope you will stick around.

Crown,

I noticed I had not congratulated you. Sorry for the belated hurray!!!

It only gets better from here on out.

Bob

I'm so happy for you Crown and how awesome now to be able to get back to living!

corkit

Thank-you all for the kind words and support since day 1...it has truly meant a lot