Intro thread
26, male. Pre-TSM 70+/week.


I am happy to report that 12.5 mg is no longer triggering strong and unpleasant side effects for me. Still perceptible, but not disruptive. I took 12.5 tonight and am now finishing my third drink, and I can barely tell that I took the naltrexone at all. I will probably take 12.5 again tomorrow, then move up to 25 on Tuesday.

Nice job Ives. Instead of letting the side effects stop you, you're finding a way through them! Also I admire that you're doing TSM so young. It will save you years of needless misery.

Good to know. I don't like the SE either, but there is certainly a difference in the way I experience the beer. Reminds me, I'm going to buy some cheap canned american lager I think since the way it affects the taste making a waste of the great IPA's I've been buying. I imagine the senses will rebalance and I will appreciated them on a finer level again soon. The nal gives me a persistent tinny taste though...hope that goes away. You, squirrel and I all started within about a week - glad you stuck with it.

Tambo: Thanks. I may only be 26, but I've been an alcoholic for 5 years already. My coworkers are buying houses, getting married, starting families. Meanwhile, I'm going home every night and drinking myself into a stupor. I can't keep living like this.

Catmattress: I've noticed a change in the taste of beer, too, sadly. It's returning to normal, but still tastes off. I am a homebrewer (really healthy hobby for an alcoholic, eh?) and decided to brew up a batch of fairly light pale ale yesterday rather than something stronger-tasting, since I don't know what my taste is going to be like in a few weeks when the beer is ready to drink.

12.5 mg tonight, gonna try 25 tomorrow.

I'm just physically not able to drink beer as fast as I could a week ago. I used to be able to get home at 8:00 and down 8 beers (or more) by midnight without breaking a sweat. Tonight, I got home about five hours ago and I'm sipping my fifth and definitely final beer of the night. I don't know if I'll be able to finish it. I think the only reason I was able to get down 7-8 beers on Saturday and Sunday was that I don't work weekends, so I started in the late afternoon and just had about one per hour until bedtime.

It feels like a chore trying to drink all of this liquid, but I still feel compelled to do it. 5 beers is almost half a gallon. And that's only half what I normally drink. This is probably just a "honeymoon effect" thing, but I felt like it was worth mentioning. I've decided to stop buying hard liquor and stick with beer, so if this effect persists, it will cut my weekday drinking almost in half right off the bat.

Great idea, staying away from spirits. And yes, this is definitely the honeymoon and won't last. Your interest/ability to drink will return soon. But the honeymoon is a great indicator that TSM will work for you.

Man we are similar. I would usually have no problem with 8-10 a night to, only I would start at about 6pm and be in bed at 10. First two days I could only handle about 2.5-3 beers. Saturday and Sunday I 8 each, same thing as you, over 8 hours each day.

Same here - 8 strong IPA's would be a norm, and 4.5 is as high as I've gone on the nal so far. Just weird...it's good...but just not as compelling...

Ives - Another homebrewer here. Well, haven't in several years, but got my equip back a bit ago after borrowing it out and I've been sitting on the fence over whether or not to start up again or sell of the equip. That fence sitting has been about my concern over having a "problem" with it, and not being sure if I should go down that road. I was a pretty prolific brewer a while back - worked up to all-grain - but haven't been at it for several years. I finally popped for some pin-lock soda kegs a while back and have been stalling ever since to complete the setup. Now I'm actually thinking it might be in the realm again. My standby used to be an snpa clone, and that would probably suit my post-nal tastes even though I've since drifted to IPA's. Ah, we'll see....but yeh, this is one of those things that I've loved that has always made the prospect of a completely AF life seem more bleak. I'm confident enough at this point that I'm still holding on to my stuff.

25 mg tonight. The only difference I've noticed is that the nausea and lack of appetite are more pronounced. I haven't been able to eat since I took the dose. Fortunately, I washed down the naltrexone with a large 450 calorie protein shake when I got home, so I at least got some healthy nourishment tonight.

First week tally: 45. I typically had 70+ per week before TSM. I'm sure it'll bounce right back up after the "honeymoon effect" subsides, but hell, I'm feeling pretty good about averaging just ~6.5 drinks per night for a week when I normally can't stop until I reach double digits. I haven't had a significant hangover for a whole week, and this is the first time I've been able to say that in years.

Well done Ives!!! Isn't it strange to drink half of what you had for as long you had?!?! I know it's really strange for me. I still feel like I need to buy more beer or open another one etc. just to end up pouring it out or having it left in the fridge. Great...but, odd!!