My nal is in customs in NYC, and today I am praying to whatever god I need to for it to get through.

Yesterday I had an online fantasy baseball draft and was on google video chat with some of my old drinking buddies. I bought a six-pack because I hoped that would be a good amount to last me through it. Sure enough, I finished the sixer in just over an hour so felt the need to chase it with an entire bottle of tequila. Needless to say I have felt better than I do today. I threw up and then kept drinking, which is a new low for me. My hands are shaking and my ears are ringing. I’ve given up hope of being productive at work today, but if I go home sick I’ll definitely drink, so for now I just hope my co-workers can’t tell. My plan is to dry out until it gets here. Le sigh. This life sucks sometimes.

Wow, that sounds pretty grim. That's great your Nal will be to you SOON, and you can get started on this journey; better times are ahead for you, my friend!

Chrissie

Ouf, I have a friend who just had his fantasy baseball draft and likewise drank ALL day, about 14 hours of drinking. I hope your nal gets here soon and provides some immediate relief (although TSM is a long and winding road...)
Welcome and hang in there.

Woohoo! Nal cleared customs in NY at 2:05am. Strange how eager to get started on this I am after 15 years of being a drunk. Spent all day yesterday on pubmed reading studies done on nal and I kinda can't believe I've never heard of it before

Welcome Generic,

Don't you just love the headache, tired, achy, anxious, nausea, guilt ridden hangover days? Yeah, me too (sic). There is hope that those days will be less and less and then finally over.

Good Luck on your Nal Journey. Keep us posted of your progress and be patient.

Eric

All the science I don't understand is just my job 5 days a week. 0 hour 4pm.

Today is day 0. As my updated graph shows, right now it takes a bunch of AF days to keep my average at about a bottle of wine per day. Landmarks I am currently searching for:

1. Actually FORGET about a half-drunk drink
2. A month without blacking out
3. Slope of the linear regression of my drinking trends statistically less than 0
4. Wife declares that she likes me better on nal
5. Cured

I'm sure I'll add more. Have to go take 25mg for the first time ever. I feel like a space monkey.

Chickened out and took 12.5 because I was having drinks in a work situation and didn't want to be too loopy. Well, I was a little loopy before taking it, so when I got a little more loopy I wasn't surprised. Didn't go whole hog. 5 beers 2 margaritas over 4 hours. Wanted more but didn't have it. Not really the effect I was hoping for, but am happy that side effects are gone today, feel fine, gonna try 25 today and see how she goes.

Generic, I like your graphs, your sense of humor, your goals and your playing w/ the doseage, to get used to Nal. The variety of goals are helpful - there are so many ways to measure success; some can be plotted and others are more subjective. I think you're off to a very good start, and please keep posting.

Chrissie

Thanks Chrissie! My graph is now updated to be more user friendly.

Well, day 1 was nothing short of amazing. The honeymoon has begun. Took 25mg at 4pm in preparation for a Friday evening. Went to TJs, got some bottles of wine, got some cheese. I started drinking wine at 6:30pm or maybe 7 or 8. Don't really remember, because it seems that for me nal really does also have an anti-craving effect. The wine still tasted amazing, but I didn't get all amped up. Lately the endorphin rush has become just as annoying as it is pleasurable. I can combat cravings by drinking hard A until I pass out, but absent that kind of leaving Las Vegas style drinking, pacing myself involves self denial within SECONDS of each sip.

Anyway, the beauty of last night was the dramatic lengthening of that mental interval that screams out "get some more! It's time!" I could watch some TV and I think I went 45 minutes between sips at one point. Brilliant! My wife and I split one bottle of wine, which is to say that she had one large glass, I had the other three. If, one year from now, I can consistently call that "a night of drinking," then I'll declare nal a miracle drug. The only things that concern me at this point are:

1. I coulda gone for more. I didn't have more though, and it wasn't super white knuckley. My wife fell asleep well before me, so I coulda easily broke into the 2 buck chuck, but didn't.

2. This isn't the first Friday night that I have ever managed to keep my consumption down to these levels. If I really try, I can do just 3/4 of a bottle in one night. I'm interested to see how nal helps me in the kind of situations where I traditionally have less control: people over and wine flowing, doing it up with my friends from home, etc. Either way though, I don't expect this foul tasting little pill to do all the work. It seems like drinking is still fun at this point, so I still want to keep going, but at least the obsessive noise in my head didn't either drive me to make myself functionally retarded or possess me such that I can't have a good time.

Anyway, I realize I'm bound for a regression, but for now this honeymoon is amazing. I feel like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgBeu3FVi60

Exactly, exactly, exactly (your item #2). I think you can look forward to ALL of those goals coming true for you. Though I'm not cured, social drinking is WAY better, and I don't lose control anymore in social situations, or on my own. I can make myself stop, as needed. At this point, the buzz intensity varies (though as you noted) that can be controlled a lot by how much you eat, etc.

And yes, it's OKAY that you "still enjoy" drinking...perfectly okay. That's part of the journey, though that reward will become less reliable. And the other part of the journey is that at some point you will maybe long for the honeymoon days! But whos to say? Everyone has a different experience, so let me just say that I'm very glad for you, in reading about YOUR happiness...a great start!

Chrissie