Another week of continued progress. I'm setting a modest goal of 46 units for this coming week, because that will then be a 50% reduction from my pre-TSM average, in 10 weeks. I'm pretty happy with how things have gone.

I seem to be a bit atypical in having steady progress, without some ups and downs (at least so far). I think part of the reason for that is that I don't have many ups and downs in my life (with one exception I'll mention further down this message). One day is pretty much like the next. I have pretty set routine of when I get up, when I eat, when I walk my dog, when I drink, when I go to bed, etc. (That might sound boring to some, but it works for me.)

I also only drink one thing (bourbon with water and ice) in one place (at home in the evening).

At the start of each week, I set a goal for units for the week and figure out how many ounces of bourbon that is per night, and then just try to stick to that figure. Each weeks' change is small enough that it has been fairly easy to stick to the plan.

The only real exception to my "each day is the same" life happened this weekend. My adult daughter was visiting from out of state because she was in a friend's wedding here. The wedding was at 6:00 pm, with reception and drinks afterwards. I could see trouble coming and warned her to watch her drinking (I'm afraid she's developing a problem) and to get a ride or call a cab if she shouldn't be driving. Not surprisingly, this advice was ignored. She got a DUI on the way home, had her car impounded, got taken to jail, etc. This cost me some sleep and will cost me some money (because she doesn't have any to spare), but at least I didn't hit the bottle for comfort.

In my 35 years of drinking, I can only think of a couple of times I drove when I shouldn't. I pretty much only drink at home and don't drive once I've started, and have never had a DUI, so I don't know what to expect for my daughter. I hope this is a wakeup call for her. I told her about me doing TSM, but I doubt she sees the need yet.

Good luck to all this coming week!

First congratulations on your continued progress and reduction in drinking. You have much better control of your drinking variables than many of us have and so from that regard your "experiment" is very controlled. Same drink, same setting, same time of day, measured drinks, NAL taken at same time etc. If I were setting up an experiment I couldn't be happier as a researcher. Secondly, sorry about your daughter's legal trouble but this may be an opportunity to help her get control of drinking earlier. It should occur to us as alcoholics that our children might inherit our hypersensitive reward systems. My children are young but it's something I've been thinking about. One of my children is wired exactly like me (I can see it as I watch him play video games, he gets that same "hit" that alcohol gives me without NAL). I can see when he gets older falling into the same trap that caught me. Just think how different it would have been for us if we never took the first drink or if the first drink was taken with NAL. We wouldn't have gotten the reward part and would have been less interested in the next drink. Contrast this with the increased alertness and wow feeling most of us get with that first drink and look where we ended up. Glad to have you along for the ride mlb and look forward to getting cured with you.

Thanks, St V.

I have 4 kids, ages 19-29. All of them drink to varying degrees, and I worry they are headed down the same path as me. My wife and their mother is also an alcoholic, so there's a good chance they have the genetic makeup to develop an alcohol addiction.

I worry more about 2 of my kids than the other 2 - my DUI daughter and my oldest son, who is living with me at the moment. He gets home from work after I've already gone to bed and then drinks all night. I sometimes find him still up drinking when I get up in the morning.

An interesting thing about the 2 of them is that they are both terrible with money. They spend every penny about as quick as they get it, without much regard for what expenses they may have next week. They are wired for instant gratification, I guess. My other 2 kids are good with money - I'm hoping their appreciation for delayed gratification may protect them somehow from going crazy with the drink.

I told my DUI daughter yesterday about TSM, but didn't give her a lot of details. This morning, I sent her an e-mail explaining how the addiction develops, how her genetics put her at risk, how TSM works, etc. I told her what my experience has been so far. She wrote back that this DUI was a HUGE wakeup call for her and that she is going to quit drinking for a while. She thinks she can just abstain and, at age 24, maybe she can. If not, she at least knows what direction to go for help.

I've told my older son about my using TSM before. He's asked a couple of times how it is going for me, so that seed is planted, too. That's about all I can do.

I told my wife about TSM when I started on it, but she's never once asked me how things are going. However, I think she has to notice that she is going through two bottles of her gin for every one bottle of my bourbon, so maybe she will catch on.

TSM could end up being the best thing that ever happened to your family. It seems that if you get cured this would be a great example to your kids. After all they know you and can see the changes first hand. If it works for you and they share your genetic predisposition for alcoholism then it should work for them. I hope that as your drinking continues to decline it doesn't cause friction with your wife. There are numerous examples of people changing (i.e. losing weight, stopping drinking or changing in a significant way) that upsets the equilibrium in a marriage. My wife was a take it or leave kind of drinker so she could not understand why I couldn't just leave it. Hopefully your wife will join you on the journey. I wish you well.

Hey MLB, you are making amazing progress. I look forward to your next update.

All the best
Kiwi.

Thanks, Kiwi - good luck to you!

I also look forward to my next progress update. I'm on track to meet my goal this week and then I'll officially be down to half of my pre-TSM drinking level. I'll be half-cured, I guess.

For me, setting a goal for each week, figuring out how much that is per day, measuring accurately, and hitting my target almost every night provides a lot of positive feedback that this is working and that I'm in control. This approach might not work for a binge drinker, but my nature is to be very consistent and routine, so I've been able to just nudge the amount down a little each week.

I really wonder how I am going to handle having an AF day or 2, because that won't be consistent and routine. I think I still have a few weeks left where I can continue to reduce the daily amount, but still drink every day. I wonder if at some point, the daily amount will be small enough that it is just not worth bothering with and I quit entirely, or if I start mixing in some AF days. Time will tell.

I've been a bit surprised in reading everybody's stories here about how different we can be. We all know we have a drinking problem, we're all trying to fix it and gain control over alcohol, but we all have a different path to follow.

I hear you about the differences. other traditional programs want you to believe all of us are exactly the same. That's how they rationalize claiming that there way is for ALL alkies. I may try the daily goal thing, right now Im just sort of rolling with it. thanks for the ideas and input.

I hit my goal for week 10 and my drinking is now down 50% from pre-TSM. I guess I'm half-cured.

I joined the crowd with a graph:

Nice graph mlb. You just don't see this kind of gradual reduction with other methods that I can think. Half cured...well put. Great progress.

nice. the graph helps doesn't it? It's cool to see your progress. Maybe I should start being more active on the AF front. I still find it hard as I find guinness and woodchuck cider black and tans delicious