Going to take a NAL in one hour since I am meeting some of my friends (one of which is a great guy but is someone who really could use NAL since he often just keeps going and going and going until he blacks out embarrasses himself pisses people off and alienates his family and I know that he is the same as me....he starts and once per week cant stop) for golf, but now I am seeing that if I am going to go out on a weekday nights to dinner and only have one or two I do not take the NAL and still do not get the rush that I did before. If I am going to a happy hour or party or its the weekend I definitly take it and it still works like 90% of the time, i can count on one hand the number of times my recollection is really fuzzy in the last 20 months versus like once to two times per week. So i am continuing to I think drink less and less, but sometimes cant tell because of my numbers I am drinking about 15 drinks per week with about 4-5 AF per week, but the main thing i always wanted to avoid and was not at all able to was the big blow ups every two weeks or so when Mr. Hyde would come out and I was a disaster.... That really has not happened using NAL and so I will continue to take it over the long haul and do not want to go back to where I was before.

double-d, if you read my recent post on "barry's progress," you'd see I've evolved into a similar situation as you. I have regained control and don't typically take Nal when I drink (and can easily stop at 2 drinks), but find it extremely effective when (a) I have already drank and have a 'wild' feeling of needing more alcohol, and (b) when I know I'll be in a situation where heavy drinking is a possibility (e.g. with an open bar at a wedding). In my 7 months, I have not been what I would call "drunk" one time, and I used to get to that point AT LEAST once per week, if not four. I have 5-7 AF nights per week now. We'll have to see how our experiment works.

Impressive double-d. Thanks for the update.....it gives us newbies hope

Cindy

Nice update. I'm only in my 6th week. I hope I'll be at a point where I can trust myself to not take Nal if I know/think I'll just be having a single drink, but for the moment I'm being pretty strict with myself. I take it even if I think I'll just be having one, and if I can't take it - an unexpected offer to have a drink, for example - I just don't drink.

VERY pleased with the results so far. I feel more in control without really trying. Used to be once I started I didn't stop. Now stopping isn't so difficult most of the time. I almost feel like a normal person!

This thread is right up my alley. I'm that type of drinker. My. Hyde without a doubt.

It's great to read some of you have the same issues I do. I saw a psychiatrist today that prescribed me Naltrexone without me even having to ask. I don't think he subscribes to TSM but that's the plan I'm going to follow.

Thanks for your posts.

I am at the two year mark using Naltrexone. I started after my firms christmas party two years when I very drunk, again, fell into our CEO at the party, had to be driven home by a friend (I had driven into the city that day and had my car downtown...bad fact like number 4), got home and got into a fight with the wife which I do not recall and then scared my then 15 year old daughter since I was apparently out of my mind, later at work I was talked to by our then practice group director (dude all you have worked for her just went down the toilet with that stunt at the party). So all in all that was a bad night, one of my worst, and I did not want that to happen at all going into it but just had zero control over my drinking. So I searched online in my state of hell and found this site and read it and then was compelled almost against my will to buy the Naltrexone. since that time I have made many posts and have published my thoughts on my progress. I was keeping a tally of how much I was drinking on a calendar but now I seem to have stopped tracking it but I still take the pill. sometimes if I know that its going to be a situation where trouble is looming for the nigth I take it one hour before or if its just a regular night I take it after one or two beers (not advisable). I also do not take it if its like a Tuesday night and I am going out for dinner at a local pub and will only have one or two beers and then go home. Those nights I do not need to drink more nor feel the need to take the NAl.

The NAL has performed as advertised. When I take it I do not feel that sudden and powerful high on my first beer or drink, after that it gets harder and harder to drink more and more. I find myself maybe chugging a few drinks at a party to get in the spirit and then cant drink more whereas before I would just go into oblivion. I am also finding that before when I got wasted and blacked out and things happened that I did not recall and people were mad at me when I did not even want to get drunk in the first place was very unnerving and unsettling. I became paranoind about what would possibly happen to me, when was I going to really hurt someone when my next episode occurred?

But now for example, last Friday night I did not have a drink until 6 pm and really did not feel the urgent need to drink when I had not drank for like 6 days. I did take Nal that night and I did drink about 8 or so drinks but I also somewhat stopped, recall getting a ride home and talking to my kids soberly when I got home. I have only had two drinks in the last 4 days. My nerves have also settled down, I try to recall why I was so agitated before, I have not really screwed up majorly. I wanted to eliminate my big nights where I would go over the top every weekend or so. I think that even after two years I still have more improvement to make but have made some substantial improvment.

I now am even seeming to focus on other aspects of my life that were otherwise consumed by alcohol. I have more time to do other things that before were taken up by alcohol. I think that I am becoming more normal but not there yet.

I think that alcoholism is genetic since I know that it affects me differently than other people who can just stop. I quit before for 13 months and fell off the wagon hard and was back to where I started in no time. I used to keep a diary of my bad episodes in hopes that it would be a way to go back and recall the bad so I could stop it from happening in the future. Insanity is where you keep doing something and hoping for a different result. That was me, getting drunk when I did not want to and hoping for a different result or not being able to stop..... Whatever it was, I do not keep my diary any more since there is nothing to write.

I can not express in words the relief or hope that this has brought me. I am somewhat perturbed that I did all of that before and went through that and am continuing to go through it, but I guess we all have our demons and vices and problems.

paltime, coopersale, miss cindy, barryb...thanks for responding to my updates and posts and good luck to you all.

Sounds like your doing good. I've been off TSM since February and will be starting back in the new year. Looking back TSM was perfect damage limitation for me. I didn't realise it at the time as I was shooting for total abstinence. Since then I've had a mad year of binging on benzos, cocaine and drinking up to 15 units a night. I also tried Baclofen which nearly drove me insane.

Last year on TSM I had 9 months free of benzos, cocaine and no more than 5 units a night. I hope I get that back.

Hi Thomas.
Happy to read your story
I have a similar addiction
Did you manage to quit cocaine with TSM?
Cheers

TSM really works for a lot of us. keep taking the Nal, and it will do a LOT to protect you from the craziness. good luck!