I remember giving it til December, and it looks like it's working. Most nights I don't drink and I don't miss it. I've changed the dose of my Zoloft, however, and it just makes me tired at the end of the day and I don't want to drink on top of it.

I'm still in the groove of buying myself a half-pint of whiskey if I've had an emotionally stressful day. I take my nal before and don't get any satisfaction from it--this is the extinction of the habit at work. This is what I wanted when I started--that I would stop thinking of drinking as a crutch to relieve stress (in spite of the fact that it made things worse). It's just now I don't know how to relax without a drink.

I think you bring up another good point inspired-sometimes it's not just the quantity of alcohol drank in a day, but also the quality of the experience. Even on my higher intake days I don't feel that same sense of desperation and obsession I had prior to TSM. The AF days are also no big deal.
Adrienne, your progress looks great. It sucks that the day to day life problems that plagued us pre-TSM can't also be tempered with NAL. I know I also use drinking as a crutch-do you feel it's more habitual than anything else? (I ask you sincerely because I'm wondering the same thing about myself and why I'm continuing to drink even though it's not nearly as pleasurable as it used to be)

Drinking to relieve tension is absolutely a learned habit for me--I know I'm tense when I go through the following monologue in my brain.

(out of the blue) "I need a drink."
"No you don't, you're just tense. Besides, you know it makes things worse."
"Buy some wine or whiskey on your way home. It'll help you relax."

I argue with myself some more, but some nights I still buy that wine or 1/2 pint of whiskey.
Since I started TSM, I make sure to take the pill and wait an hour before I drink, and now drinking does not help me relax. I get a little high, but it is not the relief from tension that I used to get and all in all it is unsatisfying. This is what I really wanted from The Sinclair Method--gut knowledge that alcohol is not my crutch for anxiety. The system works if you stick to it.

It's about the end of my 4th month, more or less, on this program. I have taken a naltrexone pill before every drinking event, on my own or with others. My drinking is down to one or two nights a week and limited to a bottle of wine or a 1/2 pint of hard liquor. I still regret drinking the morning after but it's not so terrible any more. I guess as long as I keep it up I am cured, but I still can't help thinking that drinking will help me when I'm anxious, or bored. I haven't learned to relax without alcohol. I'm just learning that I don't relax with it either.

How was Thanksgiving for every one? A couple of nights before, I had a bottle of wine with nal and it just made me tired, jittery, and a little sick. I took a nal before going to my family's home for Thanksgiving, but did not drink because I felt a little nauseous around the alcohol. My taste was off, so I was moderate in food as well. Another family member had too many rum drinks and had to go to bed before dinner, which was a shame because she cooked most of it. I never guessed she had so much to drink, until we noticed she was not at the dinner table.

She was "celebrating." I don't celebrate like that anymore, but I still need nal for the nights I drink alone until it finally sinks in that drinking just makes me sick.

A number of members in this forum want to drink moderately and just not go overboard. Is it working for you? I'm disappointed at best with my nal + drinking experiences. I may stop alcohol completely.

In response to Adrienne's question--Thanksgiving was "sobering" (but not sober) for me. After the joy of the evening before when I couldn't make myself finish more than 1/3 of a second drink (out at a restaurant), because we had wine in the house for Thanksgiving guests, I started in while preparing dinner and basically drank wine throughout the day. (We usually don't keep wine in the house because I'm still not able to resist overdoing it, but I knew I'd be drinking, took my Nal, and just overdid it yesterday.) Never got a buzz, didn't drink too fast, but still kept at it. This morning I faced that regret (oh how I hate to wake up and realize that it's day and I won't be feeling great). I had been so hopeful that my Nal was protecting me, but I defied it yesterday and drank without really needing to.

If it weren't for the honesty of you folks in your reporting of ups and downs, the fun of drinking and the loss of that "fun" (which we know turns bitter afterward), I would be discouraged about yesterday. But Nal truly is giving me hope. And being able to write about this and know that I'll be understood is total therapy for me. I'm about four months in and making progress, even with an occasional day like yesterday. But even that lapse is good for me, to keep me on my toes.

It's comforting to me to see familiar names on the posts, to know you're out there!

Sipstreamer