Hello Everyone.

Treading water right now with TSM. My work and personal life is so busy, it is ridiculous. 8-10 units every night on NAL (vodka) right now. I take my NAL every single time and wait an hour before drinking. 4 kids, huge work responsibilities, ... truthfully, I really look forward to my booze.

My wife is getting annoyed and impatient. I am getting through the workday no problem. No bad hangovers. Drinking my Vodka every night mixed with juice and bubbly water. I have absolutely no problem holding off until late at night, but I get my 8-10 units in every night. I can't seem to have an AF day.

I take my NAL and wait my hour. I have a fridge full of light beer, but when I have one after my NAL, I feel like I am going to puke. I want to get to the light beers, but it is tough. The vodka seems to kill the bad stomach that I feel. Light beer makes me nauseous. I am not sure why.

I pray that my brain is being re-wired a little every night. I am hoping for control. Tough times right now.

All the best to my TSMers.

I sympathize, brother. I really do. The stress drove me right to the same levels. I suspect it is conditioning and, therefore, habit. That means for some of us, we must really try to slow down the habit, in addition to the nal.

Hi JDog

I can relate to your frustration - this sure is a long slow process. But on the positive side, you don't suffer from hangovers and are able to function well at work and as a Dad now. Maybe because you don't feel hungover there is less drive to have an AF day. I find AF days easiest after a hard night and after 40+ weeks I still get hangovers. Hang on in there and I'm sure an AF day is just around the corner.

Cheers
Sticky

Hi Jdog,
I'm sorry to hear you feel so frustrated. I know exactly what you mean about drinking the light beer on nal and feeling like puking. My rationale is that hard alcohol doesn't do that to us because it kicks in faster, making us feel drunker/better and thus canceling out the nauseous feeling that slower drinking will give us. But it's just a theory
Have you tried other types of alcohol? wine? or perhaps even just another hard spirit? I would start trying to exert some effort if I were you. For example, if you're drinking 8-10 units right now, why don't you force yourself to stick to 8 every night this week, and then 7 next week?

Hey Dog -- I'm right there with you. Drinking more than I want to each night and wishing this moved faster. Would love those cravings to ease up. Hang in, pal. You'll get there.

Hey JD,
I feel your frustration.

Until recently I’ve been rather disappointed with my progress. I’m scratching at week 25 (after 10 years of abuse) and have actually started seeing a change I can finally regard as noteworthy.

My evening pattern was to quietly sip a 375ml mickey of vodka (hence my moniker) and some wine to explain the alcohol smell. A couple of weeks ago I switched to a 200mml size thus reducing the volume and convenience access by almost 50%.

Each day, for now I purchase the smaller volume and bring it home with the intent to consume it all. A couple of months ago I would have easily downed several time this volume. But at this stage of my treatment I don’t seem to want to make the effort shop for more once the smaller bottle is empty. The inconvenience of having to leave my house and go for a drive seems enough to encourage me to call it a night. It still seems very strange to me that I won’t go out of my way for a refill. Also, the drunk driving laws in this part of the country recently changed and are brutal. Running the risk of being caught blowing over 0.05 is completely unacceptable.

To the point I predetermined how much I consume each evening and stick with the plan. For now 200ml of vodka and one glass of wine is my evening habit. I realize it’s still too much but a far cry from my pre TSM levels of 100+ units per week. I feel better, am more interacting with the family and finding myself clear enough to read before I go to sleep. Bed time reading hasn’t happened in years, always too wasted. Ironically I’m reading James Frey’s, A Million Little Pieces. I know its fiction, but still a compelling story on recovery.

I don’t know what my next step down looks like, maybe a couple of AF days would be good. Happy to share,
Cheers,
Polarice375 or 200

Hey JDog, hang in there brother. You have a while to go. I sense you wish the process would speed up and conveniently halt your drinking. It doesn't happen like that. You're right in hoping a little bit of re wiring is happening every night- it is. However, we have all got here, because over many years, we have habituated our alcohol consumption. Its going to take more time. You've made excellent progress in many respects already. If you can, move away from vodka. I understand your repulsion to light beer- me too. Could you switch to regular beer? At some point you may have to make a teeny weeny bit of effort, a switch to regular beer couldn't be too bad could it? Once again hang in there mate, you definitely WILL get there.

Hello Everyone! I'm still here.

My work life is so busy. I have to get back to regular posting on this site.

I am still in a routine of daily drinking of Vodka 8-10 units. I keep taking my Nal every day. I still have not had an AF day in a long time. I feel like I am getting better. My wife and I are fine. I am fully functional at work. I exercised almost every day for the past 12 weeks, got stronger but still overweight, which bothers me to no end.

Feeling positive, family life is great, my biggest problem is my weight. I guess that is a lot less important than my problems, pre-Nal.

All the best everyone.

Hi JDog.

I am encouraged to pass this oldie but goodie on to you.... mainly because: "YOU ARE NOT AS FAT AS YOU IMAGINE..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBI ... jvyY42OyT8

You'll see what I mean,

Ketchikan1

Hey this is good stuff. Have you perhaps thought you might now be drinking out of sheer habit?

I found myself starting to fall into this trap and decided to shoot for an AF day or two, found it quite easy, certainly easier than pre nal. I just did something else instead of drinking, which quite often involved going to bed early. Worked and gave me the confidence to have more AF days.

8-10 units represents between 400 and 1000kcals. If you cut that out you'd loose 1-2 lbs a week.