Week 10 - I must be patient. I understand that. I am only 10 weeks in and the cure takes much longer. BUT I'm so fed up with being controlled by something that I do not want to be controlled by.

I have been visiting the board more lately. I find it helps to carry on and the stories of success motivate. It's a curious thing though how some are cured so quickly and some not at all. There was some mention in the book about people who like sweet liquids are the ones that seem to be cured. Don't know what that has to do with anything but wonder how important it is. I also tend to agree with the theory that the length of ones drinking habit may determine the length of time the treatment takes to work.

AJ and Crown if you are reading this - how long was your habit? You both seem to have been cured very quickly.

I guess we are all in the same boat - just going on faith - and a hope and a prayer - that we are not on of the very small percentage that this doesn't work for. I would be doing the same drinking anyway without TSM with no hope of a cure.

Claremont, your posts on your own thread, and especially your messages of encouragement to others, are always thoughtful, informed and insightful, so I know you'll appreciate this. There was discussion of the sugar thing a while back that got apocryphal in the telling. If you search "sweet tooth" on this board, you'll see what I mean.

Sinclair noticed that among the 22% of his subjects who were unsuccessful, about 10% were noncompliant. Some of the remaining 12% shared a rather odd trait: Lack of preference for a strong sucrose solution. This is NOT the same thing as not enjoying sweets. Rather, it seems to be a marker for the unusual absence of a certain type of opioid receptor that is implicated in naltrexone efficacy.

Hope this helps.

Week 19 come and gone. I thought I had better write a little update since it's been a while - but really nothing much to report on a weekly basis since I just plod along as usual, Nal 1 hour before drinking and life goes on!!

I can happily (almost) say that I had my first AF day in forever. However, the almost is because it came about due to a brutal "in bed half the day hangover" that we all know can happen on as few as 8 drinks on Nal.

My drinking seems to have decreased a little bit. Not sure if that has anything to do with TSM. I did notice that I drank less the week my soon to be ex BF was away.

So, I have restocked on the Nal, have Bac in the back of my mind, am almost 5 months in and will just keep going.

I'm still here! Albeit quietly in the background...........Hope everyone is OK!

Good to hear from you, Claremont. Just keep on & don't be discouraged. I know it's frustrating at this point, but who knows what the future may bring. I think there is so little science on this, we are the ones forging new ground taking NAL for extended lengths of time...just not knowing if it may work at some point down the line. Really.

I do know the times I've missed taking it, I seem to get tipsy faster. So, I am on it forever, I think. My BAC is to be redelivered tomorrow & I am nervously excited to start.

Hang in there!

C

?

I'm still here. Into month 9 with absolutely no end in sight. I have about 1 1/2 months left of the Nal and, as of last week, have started cutting my pills in half. I usually drink from 4-5 p.m. until 10-11 p.m. From what I have read, half a pill should cover me for this. I really don't feel like ordering any more because by the time I am finished the ones I have, I will be at the 1 year mark and feel that I will have given TSM my best shot. My numbers are up and down but nothing significant. My AF days have been because of such a severe reaction from the night before that I couldn't possibly have stomached a drop of alcohol.

I thought I'd give a quick update since I haven't been to the forum in about 3 months. In fact - I see we now have movies for entertainment - cool!!

Thanks to CM who PMd me. I feel a bit more optomistic now. I had no idea that two TSMers were cured at months 14 and 18. I'm sure that information is on this board but often we miss out on loads of info unless we are here for hours. This board and it's members gets bigger everyday - awesome but, again, lots of info.

So, I will keep on beyond 1 year if not cured by then and I will order more Nal. However, I will continue with 1/2 a pill for now as I still feel it initially after taking and feel that with only 8 hours drinking max, I should be covered. Any feedback on that?? I'd appreciate it.

Week 35 - starting back to 50 mg. Will order more Nal and, as BenTSM suggested, will increase the dose to 75 mg. Not so sure about chewing the pills because as we all know just from swallowing them, they taste awful. I'm feeling pretty positive after I received some PMs from the amazingly supportive TSMers out there.

I knew from the very start that I would not be an easy cure due to the discussions on numbers of years drinking vs the length of time for the cure. I really believe this theory.

Loads of thanks for the encouragement

Hello Claremont

Why not try 75 a good idea .
Am I right in saying pre tsm you drank about two bottles a night ( like me )
and now you're down to about One bottle , that's what your figures suggest ?
If so there definately h asbeen progress for you . When you had just four glasses and didn't get why, that's a good sign . The good news just comes so , so slowly and imperceptibly. But
one sure way is to guage the craving . How much you crave it is often a better sign than how much you drink , because , alas , we sometimes drink through great force of habit and this masks our potential progress .
It was always suggested in Eskarpa's book that people try to rate their craving
yet very few people actually do that .
So I see you 're fond of wine , we wine drinkers get very attached to it . What a wonderful thing tsm is eh ? it can allow us to not have to face that awful "bitter pill " of abstinence
being the only way . How often do we hear alcoholics bemoan that tall order , then when we learn about the mechanics of tsm we see how totally natural and explicable the desire to drink is for us .

Cheers to you and cheers to tsm !