As you can see by my signature, I am not properly charting and i have just begun treatment (within the last five days.)

I am sure this has been covered elsewhere, but will someone please explain the proper method of charting progress? I see the numbers in other ppls' signatures and they look like geographical coordinates to me...LOL!
Please help?
Love and peace,
pyrata

People have different ways to chart, but the most important thing is to fix on a method and stay with it over time. Some people chart in US units and others in UK units, which are different from some reason. There are threads on the board about unit measurements and also info out there in the web.

On a daily basis: Keep tack of units. Most also chart alcohol free days "AF." And some folks keep track of their cravings "C" on a 1-10 scale. You can do this in a note book or other diary. I keep track of drinks in a simple lap counter on my smartphone. AF days I remember in my head. I don't bother with cravings.

I use my signature line to keep track of weekly totals and AF days. It's a great way to look back over the past six months.

Hello Pyrata - just wanted to say hi, as I've been following your thread.

Concerning how to properly chart usage in our signatures, there is no "proper" way. You'll notice that no two people have the exact same format in their signatures, but I believe you should include at least three things:

1.) Your pre-TSM level of drinking.
2.) What metric you are using for measurement (UK, US, or AU units - as they differ).
3.) What your current weekly totals looks like.

Other than that, you'll notice that some people like to chart both their weekly unit and AF day totals. They usually look something like this...

20: 17/4 AF

That would mean in week 20, the member drank 17 units of alcohol and didn't drink on 4 days. Sometimes the "AF" label is omitted.

Some members have crammed in their entire TSM history of totals! I found this difficult to do, because the character limit in our signatures is not very generous, and I'm obsessed with formatting, so I need everything to line up in neat rows. I'm a bit of a weirdo though, as you'll see that my signature is considerably different from many others.

Regardless, I would HIGHLY recommend keeping a personal TSM journal on an excel document. Since you have no character limit, you can track everything you want to in great detail. Personally, mine includes the week that I'm on, the date, exactly what I drank (I list out each type of beverage [if I can remember], even including the brand) and some thoughts I had on that day. I reference the journal every week when I write up my weekly recap.

Okay, I'm rambling...

Anyway, best of luck to you and feel free to ask questions!

-H

Thank you both so much!!!

This is my first full week on the med, and I can say that it feels very odd to feel "drunk" after only the first drink tonight...I will post that in my progress thread too.
I have read about this phenomenon in the book...but I promise to stick with everything.