Hi HG, good to hear from you. Keep the faith, remember there is no such thing as sudden amazing progress in TSM. The whole process is much more subtle than that. Like I mentioned on earlier post maybe you need to concentrate on how habit is drving your drinking. Try to ask yourself Am I having this wine because I really want it or am I wanting to drink it because that's what I've always done. Also perhaps try to wait for the cravings rather than preempt them. Ie don't have a wine a 7pm because you think if you don't you will really crave one by 8pm. You may surprise yourself, especially of you're occupied doing other things. Hope I don't sound preachey HG, just wanted to make some suggestions. I'll leave you with a quote you may like " we get stronger by swimming against the current than we do if we swim with it". Hope you have a great week, Warren

Hi HG--I tried to post earlier, but now I do not see it. I am glad you are doing well and keep it up. I am now 8 days AF adn shooting for 2 weeks, then I am adding my name. I agree with the above advice. Drink only out of craving 1 hour post nal and do not drink out of habit. It is working for me.

Warren's advice is gold. It struck me as elegant in its simplicity: Drink in response to your craving alone, and deny the habit whenever possible. Even at my advanced stage of TSM success, I notice that I still respond more to custom/habit than any real craving. I am without craving to initiate drinking. This is what Springrider called "the slow moving train" from which we can (and should, according to him) easily jump from.

All excellent advice. When I last re-read "The Cure" book, I remembered on thing really clearly.

When you get the craving, you should drink... but only if you have taken Nal. Every time you drink when you have a craving, you are going down the path of extinction... and will finally regain control.

Best of luck to you all.

To better days ahead!

Andy

Warren speaks great wisdom! The habit is such a culprit! For sure reducing alcohol intake is not a one-step process. The NAL helps break the dependency, but breaking the habit is our job and it's not an easy one. Then, there are the cravings...YIKES!

But, with the help of NAL, TSM, and this forum with some really great people, suggestions, successes, support, tips and stories, it's really SO MUCH better than either alternative: quitting would be so much harder and be so all-consuming, and we all know what continuing the drinking means--talk about all-consuming.

This is the best plan out there, and though it takes effort and can be tedious and takes some time, it's our best hope! Hang in there everyone! Everyone seems to be making progress, slow but sure....hang on!

Thanks for the really good post, Warren. You've helped us all.

GC

Hi All - I still pop in to look at everyone's update and see that most of you are doing well. I am doing well too.

I still drink nearly one bottle of wine every night, but I don't get drunk and there has been no blow out in my family since shortly after I started TSM. Life goes on. I keep taking my Nal one hour before and know that some day I will likely just quit drinking. I look forward to that day but for now, alcohol no longer stops me from living my life fully. I can have a glass of wine and then go do something else or I can not have a glass of wine and do something else. In fact, I would say pretty much everything in my life is more important than wine these days. However, I still sit down in my chair every night and have a glass of wine, and then another. Even if I never get any better than this, I will be happy.

I'm in week 40 and consume about 30 units a week. I'll keep checking in with everyone. Nal-on.

Hi HG, really good to hear from you. I'm glad to hear that you are well (thats the main thing) and also that you are continuing to take Nal when you drink. I believe you will get there in the end and everyone should abide to their own time frame. Nick had a theory that the longer the drinking history you had the longer it would take to regain control perhaps this is applicable to you (?). I have, after much consideration, recently declared myself regained control. However, i never reached zero figures. After much thought it came down to me being happy with my level of alcohol consumption (15 units) relative to where i was when i started (84+ AU units) and my mental well being now compared to then. A thought that prompted me to think this way was that we all think of alcohol in binary terms: we either drink alcoholically or we are abstinent (perhaps AA has made that ingrained in us). The beauty of TSM is that doesn't have to be the case at all. Hence I decided that i have reached my happy place- I'm am confident and wish you luck, in reaching yours.

Hi HG

It's so good to hear from you, as I thought you'd dropped off the board altogether. It sounds like things are better, albeit slowly - that sounds familiar (except I have still had some bad behaviour going on on occasion.) Still wouldn't have missed the opportunity to give TSM a go for the world. Despite the ups and downs it has been a great 9 months, being able to drink again socially. Keep checking in from time to time. You & WJ were my main support on this board for a while.

All the best
Sticky

HG!
So great to see you posting again! You seem to be in a good place with your drinking and making progress as far as being able to do other things besides getting wasted on the grape Good to hear you are still taking the Nal and marching ahead.

Nal-on sista
K

Good to hear from you HG, and glad that you are doing well (even if you are not thrilled with the rate of progress, currently!). I agree especially with what gaincontrol said above - although nal is a wonderful tool, I actually don't believe that TSM just naturally and magically happens on its own, without any input or effort on our part. Maybe it does for some people, but I don't think it will for me - I think that trying to drink only when I absolutely crave it is only helping TSM along.
Good luck moving forward.