Hello,

I have been drinking at various levels forever. Never attracted by AA. I tried a few meetings. In recent years my drinking shifted; I also grew a lot and had more insight to myself and noticed that my drinking was self-medication. It shielded me from emotion. When things got too good (or looked like they might be getting too good) I drank to pull myself back into my comfort zone. When stress hit I was in the car going to the store for a bottle without any planning or thought.

I don't drink nearly as much as most people on the board. It doesn't matter. The point for me is that I can neither prevent nor control the drinking once it starts. Also, I drink fast and purposefully. Someone else mentioned the accelerator. Yes, I know the accelerator. So, I may pass out after sucking down only one bottle - while others may need a fifth of vodka to reach that point. But, I'm still passing out!

I have a strong meditation practice and a good spiritual (non-Christian) community. I believe this has helped me to the point where I can easily not drink every night. However, every once in a while (sometimes only once a week, sometimes every 3 days) I seem to need to turn on a pressure valve. I recognize this when it comes up and I know it is inevitable that I will drink that day. I have actually managed to distracted myself a couple of times and go through the urges. But, I've barely finished congratulating myself before another urge hits and this time I don't make it through unscathed.

I tried MWO. Too many pills, bottles. I can't even remember to take a daily vitamin. Most of the bottles are moldering on my bathroom shelf and I've even thrown a couple of them out because they expired.

I was considering Naltrexone. Then I found the Sinclair method. I am also taking classes leading to certification as a Drug and Alcohol Counselor (partially to understand myself and partially to be of help to others). Of course, you have to be sober to do this kind of work but I am aiming to be so by time I finish the course in about year and a half. The Sinclair method corresponds to what I have been learning about how the brain works. I am a little concerned about the elasticity of the brain in simply developing ways around it - but I'll jump off that bridge when I come to it.

I've ordered the book and the Naltrexone. Didn't know about River. I ordered the Nal from Squaremeds. I hope it isn't stopped by customs. I only ordered a month's supply as I want to see how I do on it. That one month supply could last me a while if I am only in danger of drinking once or twice a week.

I have a personal goal of sobriety. I would prefer abstinence to moderated drinking. I don't want to have to rely on a pill my whole life. My larger goal is to be certified as a drug and alcohol counselor and be able to talk intelligently about this method, and possibly even advocate it, and bring it into the mainstream. I also advocate Buddhist Recovery which has brought me to the point of reducing my drinking down from every night to what it is now. I teach meditation and classical mindfulness training which I think could be very useful in terms of helping other people recognize the psychological and somatic changes which signal and urge to drink.

I am sure I will encounter resistance if/when I talk about the Sinclair method to my instructors and fellow classmates - 90% of whom are recovering addicts and alcoholics and solidly AA. Next semester I have a pharmacological class to take and I hear that they require each student to make a presentation in front of the class. If I can choose my subject matter I will do a powerpoint on the Sinclair method. It only remains to be seen whether my presentation will be pro or con!

But I have till September to find out.

What a strange, interesting, exhilarating journey.

Hi Samsara

Great to have you aboard! I guess we have maybe met at MWO but you may have changed your username here.

I think it is really exciting that you have chosen this method for your own addiction and also to research as part of your course- that is amazing- I am quite concerned that with the high success rate this method has had in Finland, that it is not more 'out there'. I for one have suffered with this affliction (for want of a better word) for decades, and only by the grace of God have I not done serious damage to myself or somebody else.

I am taking the job of passing the word very seriously- just the relief I have had in my mind of knowing I am unlikely to do something hideously embarrassing while on Naltrexone is indescribable.

The best of luck on your journey, please keep us posted!

Thanks for posting, Samsara! Since you have ordered the naltrexone and the book, I assume you are commited to the Sinclair Method. Until the book arrives, please use the info on this board to begin learning about the method.

Some of the most basic principles of the Sinclair method are counterintuitive and can be tough to wrap your head around. Eskapa says the first step is to understand and think about addiction in entirely new way. This may prove especially challenging for you if you are studying to be a substance abuse counselor.

The Sinclair Method does not concern itself with how or why we became addicted to alcohol (although many of us, like you, are interested in that subject). The Sinclair Method is for those, like you and me, who are not able to control their drinking. Some of came into this drinking more than others, but our common trait is that we cannot control our drinking.

One thing you may need to consider as you prepare is whether your non-drinking days are because you just don't feel like it or because you are fighting cravings. An important part of the Sinclair Method is to not fight cravings and just drink when we feel like it. If you truly are an every-few-days drinker, then you just drink as you normally do. One of our members, Potato, is that type of drinker. The Sinclair Method can take a bit longer to work with that type of drinker, but Potato is past four months and she has been noticing gradual changes and seems quite happy with where she is at. I hope she hops on to post.

Please come back often.

Lena

Thanks for the welcome.

Lena, although I am studying substance abuse, I haven't drunk the Kool-Aid. In terms of the science of treating addiction, like most sciences I have seen that people seldom work from fact, more from a model or theory that happens to be in favor right now. When something comes along to disprove it, it is tossed and another model takes its place.

Alcoholism moved from a character defect through illness to allergy to combined illness/allergy.

I am just starting an amazing class and the instructor has a great take on addiction.

He defined addiction as:

A consistent neglect of self in favor of someone or something else.

Should be a real interesting class.

I have sat through a number of lectures and listened to various earnest theories as to why one becomes addicted. They're all right and they're all wrong - kind of like the blind men in the room with the elephant.

Anyway, I don't believe that knowing the origin of addiction is particularly helpful. What is the present-day behavior, is it destructive, if so how can it be worked with to make it less destructive to self and others? Boom. That's the whole ballgame, right there.

I am a Zen Buddhist (in case you haven;t guessed from my name). Because I come from a Practical Zen perspective, I am much more concerned with the present. What can be done to eliminate or lessen suffering? Looking in the past for answers doesn't cut it for me. So you've got the answer as to why you have a drink in your hand. You've still got a damn drink in your hand.

On the days that I don't drink, I am not fighting urges. Because I drink in response to external situations which trigger internal dis-ease or stress or just plain old change, I don't drink because I don't need to. The recognition of the "handling" or self -medicating aspect is pretty strong for me.

Disappointing to hear it may take longer for me . But, hell, I've been drinking for a few decades now. I can wait a while longer.

Anyway, I like the science and the ideas behind this theory and it can't hurt. I'm drinking anyway! Might as well drink with naltrexone.

Happy President's Day to you all.

You have a great mind set to begin the journey. Your will find the science fascinating and very Zen. And as a Zen Buddhist you will stay centered in the maelstrom that will hit when your instructors and fellow students freak out. The Sinclair Method seems to invite that reaction. I will be interested to hear how you compare your instructor's definition of addiction with the Sinclair/Eskapa explanation of the mechanism of addiction. IMO, your instructor's "definition" describes addiction -- quite accurately -- without defining it.

So happy to have you on board!

Lena

Hi Samsara -
Welcome! I too, am interested in your insights. Right now I am teaching the concepts of Hinduism & Buddhism in my classes...many Westerners have adopted various forms of Buddhism, of course. I used to be in a yoga group (30 yrs ago)...we'd do all that, meditate, then eat wonderful vegetarian fare & drink copius amounts of wine, smoke pot, and ultimately have great/stoned sex...ahhhhh good times!!

LOL - I know I am making light. Addiction in various forms is everywhere. On the one hand, that is sort-of comforting, on the other, I want my children to be addiction-free. But is anyone??? Really??? Addiction-free??

Makes me wonder...

Just want to chime in and say that I remember my 4th grade teacher in 1981 telling us that alcoholism was an allergy to alcohol. Looking back, she must have been an alcoholic or close to one, because she was parroting the AA crapola about alcohol and allergies. Any idiot knows there is a VAST difference between an addiction and an allergy. Alcoholism has precisely nothing to do with an allergy.

Interesting you'd remember your 4h grade teacher saying that! These days there are so many kids drinking at parties it boggles the mind. Starts early - much earlier than my experience of late HS - and even then my crowd wasn't a big drinking one. Not uncommon for 8th graders to have drinking at parties...8th grade!!!

So whenever I can, I "warn" my innocent 6th graders of the demon booze...just how addictive it is at their age, careful not to "dis" their parents who enjoy their nightly cocktails...but warn of so many consequences. Especially when their idols are in the news for beating each other up, smoking pot (sheesh - Michael Phelps!! What complete leave of his senses!!) all the crazy stuff people do under the influence. It's all a slippery slope. I never lecture - just try to inform and keep the lines open.

Do what I say, not as I do, I am thinking :-( yet ever hopeful...

The human brain isn't fully developed until the age of 18 or so. My sister in law made her son promise that he wouldn't do major drugs or drink heavily until that age. Of course, he didn't entirely stick to that promise - he drank a little on weekends and smoked a little weed. But, whenever he did he always had his mom's warnings in the back of his mind. So, he'd go home earlier than most and try to moderate himself.

I too had a back ground in addiction and recovery.

I paid considerable money and spent years on trying to uncover to "seeds" to my addiction. Trust me, it is a hole without bottom. After understanding the Sinclair method it has been so simple.

Some of us have a greater propensity to become addicted to alcohol. Probably heredity.
Possibly (or not) certain psycho/emotional problems allowed us to abuse alcohol.
Drinking abusively led us to addiction. And there we are...

I have long discovered that ALL those bugaboos that allowed me to drink insanely as a young adult have been resovled. If not, they will be waiting for you when you get sober. Such is life. But without having an addiction hanging around your neck, they will be much more managable.

Welcome. Do the Sinclair Method for at least two months and make up your mind. One might be too short to have a fair analysis. If so, I think you will be around fior a while.