Hmmm, well each different supply of pot is a little different so it is hard to give a definitive answer but it seems to mellow out the high, make it more even. Probably a little blunted. It is hard to tell really because I have always had alcohol and codeine in the mix before. Maybe Nal itself makes no difference to pot but the other intoxicants were. Our brains have canibanoid receptors which Nal may not effect? I'll know more when I stop smoking pot.

Cheers,
Kerri

I am now in the middle of my fifth week and my units have gone up a little. A long Christmas stay with family who drink A LOT is bound to increase my intake. Fortunately, the Nal helped me get bored of drinking early in the session each day and I retreated to a quiet corner with my book and a cup of tea.

If Nal does nothing more than make drinking boring, I will consider it a wonder drug!

The side effects have all gone. Hangovers are much much reduced, if at all. In the whole five weeks I have not had one morning where I could not recall what I said the night before, or woke embarrassed by my previous night's behaviour. This makes me feel very good about myself.

Home now. Think I may have an AF day today, and maybe even tomorrow. I'll see. Tuesday night (New Year) is a big deal amongst my friends. We get together on a large rural property and have a big party for a few days with lots of food, drink and live music. Almost every year someone falls down and hurts themselves while drunk. It has never been me and it definitely won't be me this year.

Thank you Nal.

Your numbers look good. A post-honeymoon uptick, yeah, but the holidays are so crazy that they're bound to throw a spanner in the works.

Do you think you'll still enjoy the company of hard-drinking friends once you're cured? I've never had that problem, and I've wondered what it's like for people whose social circle reinforces heavy drinking.

That's a very good, and a very hard question, Melissa. And the answer is NO, I will not enjoy their company and I have to include my partner in this equation as well. TSM may very well be implicated in the end of my relationship. Prior to meeting my partner I was drinking about 4 bottles of wine per week. Over the five years I have been with him, this has almost doubled. And he drinks at least double what I do. So now that I am not drinking to excess, his excess is starting to really grate on me. It's boring to spend night after night with a drunk guy on the couch who is snoring by 8.30pm and grouchy the next day.

We went away for Christmas to spend it with his big drinking family (including his adult kids and those of his siblings). Just before leaving, we couldn't find my cooler box. I knew he had used it last and said he must have left it somewhere. He, in morning grump mode, shouted that it was impossible he'd left it somewhere and I must have lost it months ago. We did our four hour drive in almost total silence. Upon arriving, his brother started complimenting him on the great cooler he left behind on his last visit. My partner has still not said anything in apology to me. He never does. Instead he metaphorically mumbles something into a glass. If my partner's heavy drinking (>100 units pw) does not diminish in the next few months, this Christmas just past will have been our last together.

In general, the friends I had before meeting my partner are not that heavy drinkers. There is drinking amongst them, and sometimes someone has a few too many, but it's not a regular occurrence. On the other hand, some of my partner's friends drink a lot and the culture amongst them is to drink early and drink often.

Eh, sorry for the blurt. I came into this program with a lot more 'stuff' than just drinking. Slowing down the drinking has made room for courage to flourish to deal with this 'stuff'.

Hi Kerri

I have enjoyed reading your posts.

You must be pleased with these scores If somebody told me I could take a pill & instantly be drinking less than 1/2 then I'd be very happy.

Quick question (assuming you don't mind answering) - you mention that you are getting more sober while your partner keeps on drinking. Whats your partner's view on TSM?

FYI My partner is very supportive, but she is not a drinker. As such, I have the opposite problem from yourself ... as I get more sober & more awake I have to listen to her nagging more

Cheers
Beeryoda

Ha! Hopefully you both will find there is a relationship between the drinking and the nagging, and when one diminishes, so should the other!



Don't mind at all. I figure we are all here to help each of us journey on this road...
My partner is aware of my doing TSM although we don't really talk about it. He sees the good effects it is having on me. I think he upped his own drinking when I first started on Nal but appears to have gone back to his normal 2-3 bottles per night, plus a few afternoon beers... I have asked him if he'd like to try TSM, he's said 'maybe'. But I don't think he sees it as a problem yet. And if I say his drinking is problematic, he deflects to my (small but regular) pot use and we end in a stalemate. He has 'the gene' more than I do. He also has a lifestyle that allows him to lie on the couch all day nursing a bad hangover if need be. Maybe, just maybe, if his doctor said he had to cut down on his drinking, he would try TSM but I don't think he has been truthful with his doctor about how much he drinks.

My ex-husband was a heavy drinker too. I knew that both he and my current partner were heavy drinkers before I got together with them. I don't blame them for their drinking however I do need to work out the machinations of my choosing to form relationships with alcohol abusers.

Thanks for telling me that, Kerri. I'm enjoying collecting the varieties of experience.

Your own friends sound like a good bunch. FWIW, some people find that they have to have a few to truly enjoy the company of other people who have had a few. As the crowd gets mellower and (frankly) dumber, the isolated teetotalers sometimes find that they're not really enjoying the event any more.

You have a TSM advantage, though, in that you can choose to drink two or three to be more socially congruent, even if you don't really enjoy them much. That might make it easier for you than for those who must abstain or risk relapse.

Sorry to hear about your partner. That must be unpleasant. I'm noticing that I rather dislike my husband's alcohol breath when he drinks -- now I know how he felt! -- and it must be much worse for you, dealing with real issues like passing out. Only you can decide, but your feeling that you're better off without him sounds reasonable.

JMS (in another thread) referred to something I have been thinking about over the past few weeks in reference to TSM successfulness, compliance and pre-TSM drinking levels.

I agree with JMS that heavier drinkers probably need more time on the programme probably due to a combo of psychological (habit, trigger etc) and the stronger physical addiction. I think this is why TSM should be done in conjunction with a habit-changing program - even logging drinks, and reporting them here, is a good start.

Prior to starting TSM I read a few good books written by well respected psychologists on how the process of personal change happens, or doesn't happen, and how to maximise the chance of positive change occurring. Actually, chance is the wrong word because, if left to chance, deliberate difficult changes wouldn't be made at all. Research in these books shows that a number of particular behaviours have to be developed (goal setting, reflection etc) and followed through to their conclusion in order for change to occur. By the time I discovered and started TSM, I was informed by these psychological findings. But more importantly, and in fact by chance, I had also been studying about extinction, intermittent reinforcement and extinction bursts in my university course.

For TSM to work, it is vital that we understand and commit to avoiding intermittent reinforcement at all costs. I am having a sort of struggle with it at the moment. It is the night before NY Eve and I have a big party tomorrow night. I have two Nal left and three nights before the chemist opens to fill my prescription. That means that one of those nights will have to be an involuntary AF. ... I can't allow myself to do a 'just once' because that 'just once' could undo five weeks of good work. Intermittent reinforcement increases resistance to extinction. Intermittent Nal use isn't just 'slipping up'; it's a definite backward and sidelining step and each of these mis-steps takes us more and more off course. I want to stay on course.

Best of luck in 2014 everyone!

(Hmmm, Kerri thinks New Year's Day itself is a good time not to drink and gulps her second last NaL. Kerri also hopes that her rave above will keep her on track until her new Nal stash is in hand.)

Kerri sounds pretty smart.

Now that I have been religiously following the protocol and the golden rule, I can't speak enough about the importance of adhering to that simple guideline. I am not sure whether or not intermittent reinforcement has taken effect for me given that I had been actively reinforcing my addiction for the last 30+ years. Maybe intermittent reinforcement takes place after you have achieved some level of extinction and then back slide by violating the protocol? I violated the protocol off and on from the beginning, so I don't think I was detracting from some state that I had achieved.

I am now convinced that I would be much further along with this process if I would have followed some fairly simple instructions, even though my consumption was on the heavier side when I first started. But, I'm an alcoholic, so go figure! I couldn't even follow a rule that's probably mentioned one hundred times in the book. Maybe I need a scrip for Ritalin.

Increasing the dosage has helped as well. Per Melissa's suggestion, the potential need of adjusting the dosage should be made more clear in the literature. I also agree with Kerri that some form of additional behavior modification is absolutely required to move towards the goals that a person has set. Without booze, most of us are going to have significantly more time on our hands and that time should be put to some form of productive use. Keeping a journal of consumption is a great place to start since it begins instilling some form of structure and routine to our existence. For me it is a very exciting possibility that in the not too distant future I may never have another hangover. Hallelujah!