I have some good news and some bad news. First the bad news: I have a slight case of the flu. The good news: the 4 units I had Saturday night probably did not cause me to miss the whole day in bed on Sunday. I really don’t think having that type of hangover after just 4 units over 6 hours could be seen as a benefit of TSM. In addition to having the flu, I also did not sleep very long the preceding two nights. I think it was several factors that caused me to lose that day in bed.

In other more exciting news: I started TSM 5 months ago and I have decided I am going to call it now. I am ‘cured’ as far as I can tell according to the terms of TSM. By ‘cured’ I mean that I am 99% positive that if I continue to always take NAL before drinking I will no longer have any serious problems/issues with alcohol. In other words, TSM has done its job. What does this cure look like:

1) I no longer think about alcohol very often.

2) I don’t feel like drinking most days. I am more or less indifferent to it.

3) When I do drink, I am generally able to stop after 4 or 5 units. It is actually difficult for me to drink a lot.

4) After a drinking day, it is not difficult for me to go back to having AF days.

The one huge caveat is that I am also positive that this is all due to NAL and that it wouldn’t take very long for me to get back to where I was if I started drinking without NAL.

My progressive has indeed been steady and natural, although I did find using a graph helped me plan the initial descent down from the summit that occurred around week 4 (which was still well below my pre-TSM unit level). I once thought that NAL might simply be working because it blocked the endorphin rush and could be seen as a tool to help one reduce or moderate their drinking. However, I now feel that it has done more: that it really has reset something in my brain which makes me less preoccupied with drinking. This feeling or shift in thinking happened around weeks 16 - 18. I am more or less indifferent to drinking most of the time now. In that sense, something like pharmaceutical extinction may have taken place very gradually. I look back to my week 4 when I recorded 50 units. That was an estimate, but I may very well have drank a little above 50 units that week because I was having some night caps with hard liquor and that was the one week I did not record units particularly well. I was concerned that week that perhaps the effects of NAL were wearing off, but that was simply a spike. The important point is I don’t think I could easily drink that amount again today on NAL. I could do it, but I don’t think I would want to do it as long as NAL was in my system.

I am going to have to send a thank you note to Drs Sinclair and Eskapa at some point. While I want to stay anonymous, I feel some responsibility for spreading the message about this method and plan to do something to promote it in the future, but that is a topic for another day.

Thanks to everyone that commented on my thread or posted about their progress in their own thread, etc. It has helped immensely.

Congratulations Merlot, I am very happy for you. Your contributions to the board have been tremendous and I look forward to reading about how you are doing in the future. It's been a while since we've had any additions to The Cured List. Bravo

CONGRAT'S Merlot!!

Your criteria rings a bell to me (three out of four). I started TSM a few weeks later than you, and I feel like I'm right behind you. Good luck.

That's great news! Congrats, Merlot.

Merlot - I am speechless! I have been counting the days until you announced this. I have a big giant lump in my throat because in reading your thread I really relate to your drinking and hope that my progress matches yours. You are so great to stick around and post your progress and march to the cure when you could have just silently fallen away like some. Keep posting your progress for awhile if you can. As you know, it really helps us who are well behind you.

As an aside, it would be great if you would post your cure in the Cured List thread. I know that thread was one I read a lot when I started 9 weeks ago. We deserve to see you in that thread too.

HG

Merlot, it was obvious watching your progress the last few weeks that you were close to the "cure". It was no question of if, but just when. I'm so happy for you. Thank you for all of your posts. They have been so helpful to me. I hope you continue to stick around and post your experiences on this board, and also to give advice to those of us that are behind you.

Fantastico! Keep on keepin' on.

Awesome!

Keep taking the pill and you are set!

My best,

Nick

Thanks everyone for your kind comments.

It's almost the end of my TSM week (which is Mon - Sun) and I have yet to have a drink -- again, alcohol is just not on my mind much these days. I feel a sense of liberation these last several weeks. Perhaps I will drink a few tomorrow night to continue the therapy. I'll see what I feel like tomorrow.