Hi I'm new to TSM.com and have a question :-

Following consultation with my GP I started on Nal a week ago, 25ml a day for four days and 50ml a day thereafter. The plan is to do three months on Nal each day and stay AF as much as possible.

Having researched TSM am I correct in saying that it advocates taking Nal ONLY when you intend drinking (ie one hour beforehand) ?

My question is if I continue along the agreed course with my GP and take one tablet a day wheather I drink or not will the Nal have the desired effect if I do happen to drink - ie reduce my creaving and accordingly my intake ? OR in order for it to work should I revert to only taking Nal prior to me going drinking ?

Basically will it work either way ?

Hi TS

TSM states that you only take Nal when you drink. Take it one hour beforehand. If you have an AF day, it serves no purpose to take Nal because it only works if you take it when you drink. Nal is an antagonist that works to block your brain's reward system during alcohol consumption. Google Naltrexone and pharmacological extinction to get a full description. However, I've found LOTS of false info about the drug. Your best bet is to read "the cure for alcoholism" if you haven't done so already. Also, please keep in mind, it could very well take much longer than 3 months. I'm on week 19 and see very little change so far. Best wishes to you on your journey.

Thanks Nalwayout,

I appreciate what you say about TSM but my question is if I persevere with my GP’s recommendations (remember I started my treatment without any knowledge of TSM) will it have similar effect if I do happen to drink – i.e. reduced craving and intake

Many doctors still (wrongly) think that you should take nal everyday, as a sort of anticraving medication. It doesn't really work very well that way. Nal works if you only take it on the days where you will be drinking, an hour or more before you start drinking. It;s good to mix in AF days for your health and sanity, but they are not really a requirement of TSM. Good luck!

Thanks for your reply ElectraLou – quote “It doesn't really work very well that way” – Does it do any harm – you see I want to become alcohol free not just alcohol tolerant

I think the harm is that it can kill other endorphin releases, such as you might get from exericise, sex, food, etc. So it might become quite depressing mood-wise. A significant minority of people use nal and TSM and become abstinent (whether that was their goal all along or not) but the way that happens is through killing triggers and eliminating cravings, by DRINKING THROUGH the cravings when you have them. Eventually you might become effortlessly abstinent (rather than AA, white-knuckling it).

If you wan t to be alcohol free take Nal+alcohol= cure. Taking nal to reduce cravings does not work, it does not overcome the ADE (alcohol deprivation effect). You will be better served if you go ahead and try to stay alcohol free and only take the nal when you have an overwhelming craving and surrender to taking a drink. (I was one of the fortunate ones that was cured in less than four months. Being alcohol free is now easy as pie for me.)

Read the book. You can read almost the entire thing online for free at Amazon.com.BTW, you may be better off not telling your doc that you are doing the TSM, just do it and report back following your success.
To answer your question more directly: Taking Nal every day will not so much 'hurt' (unless you have side effects) as it would be a wasteful/expensive use of Nal when you take it on days you don't actually drink. You are more likely to experience sided effects if you don't drink with Nal. You will also be blocking the reinforcement/reward you will get for any "vigorous" activities in which you engage. If you are a couch potato anyway, forget about it, no harm.

I take Nal whenever I think I might drink, if I do I do, if not then another AF day is a boon. Slowly over time my units dropped off and I now consider myself in control. Because of the way in which alcohol affected my life, and is essentially a depressant in itself I have not noticed any overwhelming negative effects on the rest of my life. In fact being in control has opened up my life again. If there is a depressive effect that is overcompensated by the reduction in my drinking.

Hi Three Swallows, and welcome!

Taking Naltrexone as your doctor has prescribed is no more effective than placebo - 5 to 10% success rate. The Sinclair Method has been scientifically proved by several double-blinded placebo-controled clinical trials to have a 78% success rate, success is defined as a return to controlled drinking or abstinence.

I very strongly urge you to read The Cure For Alcoholism by Dr. Eskapa.

http://www.amazon.com/Cure-Alcoholism-W ... 1933771550

You can even download it on to your computer.

Curi

First, don't get locked into feeling/thinking that you will be cured for sure in 3 months. Most people take twice this long, or longer, to see results. Have a look at the cured list section. Someone put together a list of people who have regained control with the number of weeks it took them to regain control. You'll see that most are well over 3 months. So, set your sights on 6-8 months, but as much as 10 months. If you regain control inside of 3-4 months, then this is a bonus for you! Keep in mind also, that for many of us, the 6-8 month journey was not an easy one. It is a real roller coaster, but ultimately we found our goal. Just keep the goal in sight and take your NAL.

You really only need to take NAL if you are going to drink. However, when you first start on the program, many find it useful to just take their NAL first thing in the morning so they don't have to worry about drinking and not having their NAL with them. This also depends on what kind of a drinker you are. Some drink everyday, while othesr binge every other day or every few days. I was a binge drinker and only took NAL on the days I knew I was going to drink. I kept a stash of NAL in a few different places (e.g., car, desk drawer, home, etc), so that I wouldn't be without it when I got the urge to drink.

Finally, don't worry too much about what your GP thinks or says about TSM; as he/she likely knows nothing, or very little, about it. My GP seemed to feel that the quantity of NAL I was taking was some how tied to the success/failure of the method. He made a statement at one point "Well, if you start needing more NAL, then we'll have to look at other options." It was about this time that I stopped getting my prescriptions refilled from him and started buying it online (which is what I wish I would have done from the beginning).

Q