HG--Great progress! Hang on and hang in there. You don't even need a year at one unit drop per week--now you are down to only needing 9 months!! I think you are doing really well. You should feel confident that NAL is working for you--it doesn't HAVE to work fast, it just has to work!!

DO try drinking some NA beverages while you drink wine--it should help a lot with the hangover because you are staying hydrated, and it very often will cause a drop in units because you get full--or spend your time in the bathroom away from the wine glass!! AF days will help, but those have to come when they come--I would be afraid to force those out of fear of setting off a binge. You'll know when you are ready for AF. I also use ONE DRINK nights instead of AF. If you feel like you COULD do AF, give it a try. The worst thing that could happen is you would take your NAL and start drinking later than usual. Your urges appear to be getting weaker, and the "punisher" of the hangover (on less units no less) will help you make progress.

Good luck--you sure have a lot of good support!

Slowly but surely, you are falling out of love with alcohol!

Congratulations, you'll get there.

My best,

Nick

Hi HG

Well done on the drop and good to hear you are enjoying water. I'm sure if I could stick to a glass of water between wines I'd feel a lot better in the morning. I will aim to try that at my party this weekend.
Have a good 14th week!

Cheers
Sticky

HG-you and I seem to be in the same boat. Wine every night, not yet able to conquer the AF days, and looking for ways to reduce units. So far, my ice trick has worked for two weeks, dropping me to 29 units the last two weeks. This week, instead of 4 units a night, I'm going to try for 3, or try at least alternating 3 and 4 unit nights. The AF days are something I want really badly, but by 4pm, if I haven't taken the NAL, I feel huge anxiety kicking in. This is something I have to work on, because it would reduce my units so drastically. Little by little, I know we will make it. I feel it more, and know that my tolerance is dropping, which will help too. Hang in there and keep the faith. You're doing great!

Server - It is so nice to hear from you. Yes, we are in the same boat. I wanted to AF last night to bring my units down for the week, but like you, around 4:00 the anxiety kicks in. I guess we should just let it happen. We will get there sooner or later.

I'm so glad to see that you are still around and having some progress with TSM. I'd thought we'd lost you and I believe it was bad SEs, right? How's that going.

I think my issue is drinking out of habit and not addiction or cravings. I have had a suprisingly easy time with my AF days and am now concentrating on pushing back my start time. I am trying to go for 7pm tonight. If I can push it back to bedtime, then the AF will "just come" as everyone is alluding to. I really thought I would have a harder time with the "forced" AF, but once I actually did it--it did not seem so monumental. I am firmly convinced, as Dr E points out in his book, that the AF days ARE TSM. He says that the way we re-wire our brains is by having AF days and experiencing pleasure on these days, re-training ourselves to experience pleasure without AL.

Hi HG-no I'm still here and working to get my units down. The SEs still prevent me from going up to 50mg, so I'm heading for extinction on 25mg. Because my window of drinking is very narrow, between 4-6pm only, the 25mg seem to be working for me. My ultimate goal is several AF days a week, with never more than 14 units in a week. Considering that 16 weeks ago, I was averaging about 70 units a week, and now I'm under 30, I"m feeling pretty good about it. Now, if I can just add those AF days in....

Hi, HG-

I hope you are still seeing some unit drops. I thought I'd share something with you. I attended a lecture on ""Non Invasive Cario Testing" and one point the cardiologist made that I did not know is that stroke or heart attack after a bout of heavy drinking can be closely related to dehydration. Plaques can become dislodged due to dehydration (and alcohol CAUSES dehydration) and enter the blood stream.

That "AHA" for me was to make VERY sure that when I drink, to stay hydrated--in other words, drink as much NA fluid as alcohol. Next leap--you MAY drink less alcohol if you are downing the non-alcoholic beverages....the bladder only holds so much!!

Every little bit helps!! Good luck with your continued progress!

GC -- this is great information. Thanks!

Hi All - Well the end of week 14 brought higher numbers which is a bit discouraging. Not sure what was going on last week but my cravings were where they were at pre TSM and I drank like a fish it seems. In week 14 I started out at 6 units on Wednesday and then 7 on Thursday. So, on Friday I made a concerted effort to stay at 5 but then by Saturday I felt deprived and had 6.5. I seesawed back and forth between 5 and 6 the rest of the week ending up at 40.5 which I rounded up to 41 because you never know if you may have had that extra half a glass of wine (no pun intended) .

Nothing new going on that would cause this spike. I think it is more like I am trying to drink to get the high which isn't coming anymore. I seem to be craving that high and I can't get there. Like last night I was drinking white wine (which I haven't drank in weeks) because I knew I can get higher on that quicker, but by my second glass I stopped and switched back to red. All the white wine did was make me more dehydrated and a bit nauseated. I also noticed that it tasted like syrup. In fact, it didn't even taste like wine and I purchased a bit more expensive bottle hoping for that nice buzzed feeling. So, I was able to keep it at 5 units last night, but I notice that same craving today and it is only 11:00 in the a.m. Maybe once I get it through my brain that I can't get high unless I want to drink a couple of bottles I'll stop drinking more. At least I hope that is true. I sure notice I don't enjoy drinking anymore. The hangovers on even 5 glasses aren't pleasant and I just feel fuzzy and dehydrated by the time I go to bed. I don't think I've been high on wine in weeks and weeks. Bummer.

Looking for week 15 to bring a reduction in units. Wish me luck.