I agree with ElecLou - it's excellent progress.

Over the next 2 - 6 months your units will steadily decline. You'll be able to look back in six months and see how much this has changed your life... keep up the good work.

I love it that the morning drinking has stopped too - that's a sure sign it's working!

Andy.

Hi dragonfly

Your progress is awesome in a short amount of time. Good for you. I hope your week is going well.

Cheers
Sticky

One month in with TSM and I really feel good. I'm sure a huge part of it is the increased sunlight and warm weather of summer. This week's total is 38 which, of course, is way too much but I feel really confindent that the gradual decrease in units is what's coming next. So far I've been pretty textbook it seems with the initial decrease, the spike up, and now I'm hoping the decrease down again.

I had the first meeting with ANP who prescribed me the Naltrexone since she gave me the script. She gave it to me about 7 weeks ago and let me decide if I wanted to take it. The directions with the script were to take it daily in the morning to curb cravings. I researched it, found out about TSM and decided on my own to go for it. I told her all about it in our meeting. She was not familiar with TSM at all so I told her all about the extinction method and this forum- I told her how much knowledge and support I've gotten from you guys! She was very interested and taking notes the whole time and I'm sure will be looking into TSM to learn more. She is a very open minded lady and fully supported my choice. In fact, her response was "I'm just so happy for you. Isn't it so great that there are options out there for people who need treatment? AA just isn't going to work for everyone." I just wish others on this board could find someone like her!

On Thursday I came very close to an alcohol free day. The best part is that I wasn't trying for it. I knew there wasn't any alcohol in the house but on the way home I just didn't feel like stopping. I JUST DIDN'T FEEL LIKE STOPPING!! It was awesome! My hubby came home later that night with some beer so I did end up having one. I didn't even take a Nal and I ended up sipping on the beer for over an hour and then went to bed. I didn't even have to try for that- I felt so normal! The really cool part is that it happend without the Nal.

Other postives this week: stuck to my running routine that I had planned, got a handful of household projects done that have been on my "to do" list forever, and I bought two new novels (reading is a favorite past time of mine) to keep my mind busy and from wandering to alcohol.

I feel good and I feel like TSM could really work for me (fingers crossed). Some days I feel like I've stopped a freight train's momentum and am slowly pushing it back in the right direction. Other days I feel like I'm clawing my way out of a hole. I just feel like change is happening. I had a really really rough winter and the pull of alcohol had gotten so very out of hand and out of my control and it was making my depression so much worse.

-dragonfly

Dragonfly, that is all great news! I agree that you seem like a prime candidate for success on TSM so far
I've also had a couple of occasions where I ended up having a drink or two without the nal, and although I know that "bad," I felt totally in control - which leads me to believe that although there is obviously a very strong pharmacological component to TSM, that in addition we are creating new patterns and habits which will just get easier and easier to follow with time.
Congrats!
EL

Great progress! You are on your way!

I had a rough week last week, not exactly sure why. I had a total of 48 units and that was with one alcohol free day so you can imagine I drank quite a bit each day. I got to an all time high (since starting TSM) of 13 units. Not surprisingly, the next day was the AF day!

Then I kicked this week off (it was a holiday and a very very beautiful day out) by starting fairly early in the day while doing yard work and ended up drinking 11 units. Got into a stupid fight with hubby who dumped out the bottle of wine. The best choice on his part really, I was being an idiot. Yesterday I had the "full of regret" hangover because of how I acted. Acting emotionally out of control and moody is what I hate the most about when I get drunk. I just felt so stupid. Just like my AF last week from a physical hangover, yesterday I went AF due to my emotional hangover.

I can absolutely gaurantee that I would not be sticking with this if I didn't have this forum to refer to. I would have declared it unsuccessful by now. But, because I've been well warned that this process is bumpy I'm going to stick with it. Glad I was warned to strap in, because I did.

Roller coaster on,

Dragonfly

A lousy week is still 12 units less than your pre-TSM average. Yeah, it IS a roller coaster. Hang in there, you'll get there.

I agree with Nick - bad weeks happen, but at least on TSM you know the badness is still working towards something

Keep going dragonfly!
I saw my GP today and although I'm her first patient on Nal for heavy drinking, she has never heard of TSM, but she totally "gets" the extinction process and agrees that it takes time to rewire the brain depending on several factors...she then checked my prescription to make sure I had enough for a whole year! Sooooo, hold on to your seat and stay on the ride!

Hi dragonfly

I agree that without this forum I probably would have given up in disgust. I've had a couple of really rough weeks on TSM and I'm at week 27 already, but overall I'm optimistic that this will work for me. Keep on trucking on....

Cheers
Sticky