Hey Pacificman, sounds like you are doing really well. It's great you can recognize the small steps of progress along the way. All the best for the month off work. That would be a big trigger for me too. But hey... The beauty of TSM is that we don't have ti fight the trigger... We simply drink through it and extinguish it!!!

I look forward to your next update.

Cheers
Kiwi.

It's intresting to read about your experiences with the beer - they sound exactly the same as mine. Beer just doesn't have the same refreshing taste to it like it used to. To me they taste more like alcohol free beers; kind of dilluted, and more difficult to drink a large amount of them.

Lucky, interesting to hear that you felt the same. I wonder if these tastes we remember were actually manufactured by our pleasure center? I mean how would Nal make it taste different? I would think that it has to be a perception rather than an alteration of the taste buds? One thing for sure, it is not a bad or altered taste that is causing a decrease in the amount i drink. It goes beyond that for sure.

I think that's exactly it, pacificman. The beer must still taste the same, but our perception of how it tastes has changed. It's not that hard to believe either, because I remember that the first time I had a beer as a teenager, I wasn't overly impressed by the taste of it, but with years of 'reinforcement' it became my favourite drink.

Vino is my AL of choice, so I'm curious to try a beer and see what it tastes like. I drank copious amounts of beer in college and can do a good brewpub or Oktoberfest justice any time, but would definitely always choose wine over beer. A few months ago (pre TSM) after a couple of months of not drinking, I started drinking beer nightly, justifying that as long as I wasn't drinking wine I was doing better (crazy). Went through a stint of 3-4 six packs a night for a few weeks, then waved the white flag and went back to wine. Only one week on NAL and have only had wine, but had a similar experience to yours in terms of it tasting differently and not as good. Congrats on your progress Pacificman!!!

I notice the first few sips of wine are really acidic and then it's alright. but I have slowly strarted to gravitate towards beer instead. you 2 st.'[s keep it up. I'm enjoying your posts here.

10/13 2 beers nothing to report
10/14 6 beers, tried to organize a ride to a bar with a few friends, gave up after 30 mins. and went to bed. Once again, never would have happened before. Especially after that "evil 6th beer". I would have found a way, and drank all night. Im not even really that proud of myself. It's too easy to call it work. It sure is an accomplishment though.

Flight home and month off starts tomorrow!

Word!

good luck with the time off. This thing really is easy if you think about it that way. Soemtimes it gets discouraging for me that it is taking a long time, but I def. see a difference and it's way easier than AA was.

I think the best thing about it is that we're not beating ourselves up about it. No-one wants to have to spend every day fighting against their desire to do something.