I am really hoping that someone out there will have had similar strong side effects to me and will tell me that they have gone away, because I'm having a tough time hanging with them!
I began NAL on Monday and posted on Tuesday about surprisingly strong side effects -- I felt like I was stoned (but sadly, not in a good way). Several folks said it goes away quickly. I took 25 mg Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, with wine, but was so tired and foggy during the day, I have been all but non-functional (which is not a good thing for the family's breadwinner).
Last night I took 50 mg and had to go to bed at 9:20 after 2 glasses of wine -- I was so tired and woozy. Basically, I slept for 13 hours because I couldn't wake myself up entirely (got kids out of house, but had to go back to bed rather than to office).
Has anyone else really been knocked out from side effects of Nal but then stopped having them? Do you think I should just stop drinking for a while and try again in a few days, or should I keep it up over the weekend in hopes of getting used to it by Monday?
Advice appreciated!
Amy

Hi. I see you don't have any reply and I am sure you are about to panick, so I'll give it a try!
I didn't have real bad side effects (SE) when I started, other than feeling slightly spacey. But I have read of people having bad SE which got better over time. I think a few never got over the SE. Advice I have seen is to take it with food. Also, there should be a big difference between someone who weighs 250 lbs taking 25mg, and someone who weighs 100 lbs taking 25mg. I am about 220 lbs, but if you are a small person the SE would probably be much worse and perhaps 25mg should be your dose, in which case 12.5 should be your starter dose??
I am NOT a doctor and I am only responding to try to give a few ideas and keep this message going.
I would keep it up through the weekend and see if the SE get better.

Anyone else have any info??
I wish you the best,
Dave

Thanks for responding, Dave. Give the fact that I haven't gotten a reply from someone with my experience, I am concerned that the intensity of my side effects does not bode well for Nal working for me.
Last night, I backed my dose off to 25 mg and as a consequence drank more than I have in a while (7 glasses of wine). I am not as zonked today, just the same issues to a lesser degree. So I think that I will skip a day or two of drinking to feel better and then try again with 50 mg of nal.
Hope I hear from someone who got to the other side of this issue, and otherwise, I am going to keeping taking nal for another week.
I'll let you know what happens!

Hi Amy - You are going to have SEs for the first week or two but they do lessen over time. Maybe you should stick with the 25 for awhile as 50 really bothered you. Give it time. We all have SEs in the beginning to varying degrees. Your SEs may be a bit more than most but if you take the 25 for a couple of weeks and you don't see a lessening of SEs, thne worry. Right now the SEs are a good sign as they likely mean TSM will work for you. Sorry, you are having such a rough time of it. Hang in there.

Just wanted to post an update on SE and thank folks for encouraging me last week. I tried 50 mg of nal on Friday night, drank 6 or 7 glasses of wine (more than usual) and slept a lot over Saturday and Sunday. I slept so much I really couldn't have a drink, so had 2 AF days. Since my husband wanted wine with Valentine's Day dinner last night (lobster with grapefruit butter sauce, yum!) I took 25 mg nal and had 3, maybe 4 glasses of wine. It seemed to have a strong effect and I passed out before 10 pm, but I feel almost normal today, which is good news.
I am surmising from this that, for me, nal may intensify the effects of alcohol and is going to make me pass out quickly when I drink (there's a caution) but also that I am moving past the SE phase, thank God.
Any comments or thoughts you have on this is appreciated!

Amy, naltrexone can suppress the first drink effect. Many alcoholics find the first few drinks to have an excitatory effect and only later experience the central nervous system depressive effects of alcohol that make us drowsy and eventually pass out. Nal is blocking all the excitatory effects and you are just getting the depressive effects. I felt the same thing on my first few days on nal although not to the same extent as you. I could never understand people who would have 2 drinks and get sleepy when I was just getting started at 3. Now I get it because I've become that person. These may be good signs that you will respond to nal. You just have to get over the hump and reduce your drinking enough so you're not a zombie.

amy-
i had that stoned spacey tired feeling for about a week- it was pretty intense.
this is now gone.
i hope you are able to experience a similar decline.

So, I just had a girlfriend tell me to calm down and ask me what was wrong. I have plans to go to dinner with two girlfriends tomorrow night and the organizer pointed out that we needed to move our reservations back so we could have cocktails first. I am terrified that I will not be able to go slowly enough to keep from passing out during dinner! Since drinking with nal, my tolerance is really low as mentioned in my previous posts.
When I got anxious about the cocktails part, one of my best friends said, "what's wrong with you? You can decide if you want a drink or sparkling water! Who cares if she wants to have cocktails?" Can I decide to have sparkling water? Not in my experience!
I always drink more than I'd like to in these situations, but now I can't handle the alcohol and I am afraid of what will happen. I am also afraid that my battle with alcohol is showing in my anxiety.
I wish there were some way for me to get out of this invitation, but there isn't. I just don't feel ready to deal with this situation, but this type of situation is exactly why I am doing TSM: because I can't be trusted to be moderate once I start having fun with friends. It feels like my choices for tomorrow night are to not have fun or risk losing it/passing out. Yikes!

consider:
mixing a water between each drink
eating before drinking
drinking some caffeine
using the "i am driving excuse"
working out intensely beforehand

good luck. will check back in to see how it goes.

thanks ready. Because of timing I can't work out, but I will do all of those other things. fingers crossed.