Barry, I've read your thread and find you to be an inspiration. I looked forward to reading more about your progress as you seem to be one of the success stories, and I'm just beginning my experience. Still waiting for my order, and seeing a therapist today. I totally understand your reasons for disengaging for now. Anything that makes you doubt your own progress isn't productive. I was disheartened to read some of the heavy drinking while on Nal stories too, and I haven't even started it yet. The upside of the negative reports is that I'm view Nal as my last effort before abstinence, as it clearly doesn't work for everyone. Thank you for your great reporting and I'm glad you feel well enough to move on.

Hey everyone. Quick check in before re-sabotaging my account for another week or so. It has actually been great for me not logging onto this website. Everything is going fantastically -- still no drinks or desires, still working out regularly, almost no angry outbursts, lots of smiles and laughter. The main difference now is that this is the "new normal" for me so I really don't even think about drinking much and, if I do, I have yet to have a worthy temptation in at least 8 weeks!

A good comparison is when I first started working nights. For the first few weeks, I would look at the clock and be like, "Wow. It's 1:00AM and I'm still awake...Man, it's 5:00Am. Normally, I would be in bed right now." After awhile, you just stop thinking like that because your brain can only be amazed for so long before it just adjusts. So, when I started TSM, I'd be like, "Wow, it's 5:30PM and I still haven't drank...Man, it's 10:00PM and I haven't had anything." Those thoughts are fading into oblivion, which really helps. I still wake up nightly to pee and, every single time, I do my usual "how much did I drink last night?," then quickly realize, "Oh, nothing!" This is fading, too.

I would highly recommend extended periods of abstaining to really, really break the cycle.

Peace!

P.S. I'm already working on my "cured" post, which I hope to post on Easter. Warning: It will be long (and dramatic).

Barry,

I am looking forward to your Easter post.

Christopher

Barry,
Can't wait for the Easter drama! I started Nal Mar.19, 2013. Don't see much difference except was neaseated the next morning for a few days. It seems to have gone away now. I usually drink 5-8 beers a day and sometime a few glasses of wine after that. Just can't seem to stop once I start. I am really hoping for a miracle here. Trying not to get too wrapped up yet since in has only been not quite 1 week.

Question If you drink some during the day and then take a break (or nap) for a couple of hours, do you need to take anothe Nal?

Keep us all posted. You really are the Bomb.

LindaM

Glad to hear about your success Barry. Looking forward to the Easter post.

Hey there Barry,

When you write up your cured post, I wonder if you can address some important points for me. You have been one of the fastest cases that I have seen on here. It seems like from the first time nal crossed your lips your numbers plummeted without check. Mostly I want to know why you think your experience is so different from the rest of us?

Quick update for everyone...
On week 16 now, still going great. Each week, I'd say things get slightly better because my problem drinking becomes ever more distant and my new, improved lifestyle becomes more solidified. I've actually had a little bit to drink in the past three weeks. 1/2 of a frozen vodka lemonade one week, 1.5 beers at our sailing club dinner the next week, 1 beer after a week of hard school week the next. I actually just ordered 50 more pills from alldaychemist and plan on that lasting about a year or so (maybe more, maybe less).

generic, to answer your question weeks later...what's my opinion on why I've had more success with this than average?
I've thought about that. I'd say, first, that it's probably a lot to do with biochemistry, in that I'm lucky enough that Naltrexone seems to work perfectly on me -- by that, I mean it doesn't give me bad side-effects and really, really makes it difficult for me to drink heavily. Second, motivation from so many bad experiences makes me strong enough to take the pill every time I drink. Third, I love not-drinking. Everything about my life is better without alcohol. I always sort of knew that, but I still drank because of addiction. Fourth, my sitz im leben is very conducive to not drinking. I live in the "Bible Buckle," rarely end up in bars, rarely am pressured to drink, have few friends that drink, and am married to a woman who barely drinks. All those four factors, in my opinion, made it almost destiny that I would be cured quickly with TSM.

Barry,
It is wonderful to hear your success story. I keep going with the Nal but seem to have lingering nausea in the mornings and am starting to get very, very tired. I have to admit that my drink numbers are going down from 8 daily to 4 or 5. I am very happy about that. I also had some bad headaches. I get migranes occasionally and have to admit that the Nal headache is worse. I am on my 26th day of taking Nal, so that is not really that long and I am hoping the side affects will go away. I cut down to 25mg again to see if it helps the side affects. I am not going to quit. I really want to kick this nasty addiction.

Thanks again for your musings. I read them all and they are inspiring.
LindaM

Yeah,

I know we've discussed this before, but my "sitz im leben" is full of the "Ein Bier, bitte!"

I do find it, ever so slightly, getting easier and easier to skip these events, slow down, or just leave earlier.

Good to hear from you barrb!

I had an "ugh" experience last night. I decided I wanted to drink last night for whatever reason. I took the Naltrexone and basically felt blah -- the best way I could describe it is like the whole experience of being dizzy minus the actual vertigo/spinning. You couldn't have paid me to have a drink at that point, so I just did without. Slept great, but woke up feeling tired and "stretchy" (which I can't exactly attribute to the Naltrexone, as this happens to me every once in awhile). My AM stimulant didn't help, so now I'm having some coffee and heading to the gym for a heavy workout. Que lastima!.