Checking in for a progress update.

Week 6: 30u & 4AF
0, 0, 6, 6, 0, 18, 0

NAL seems to continue doing the work & drinking is becoming a little tedious.
My health has improved remarkably ,, Lost 8KG in 6 weeks.

However it is not all good news .... The NAL is dulling down my social/drinking life (I almost feels like I am play-acting when at the pub) and on stressful days I no longer have anywhere to escape to. Oh how I use to enjoy getting blasted on three bottles of red when I was stressed

I fully appreciate why some people try & mess with the 1-hour rule & revisit the buzz.

Until next time
BeerYoda

I'm pretty sure it's supposed to dull down your drinking life.

Maybe you won't want to spend as much time at the pub as you used to. You have more time now to do other things. What are some other things you'd like to do?

I've found that exercise is a far better foil against stress than booze ever was. And it's good for me. Imagine that. It's the middle of summer in Australia, right? How about going outside and enjoying the weather? Half of the US is frozen solid!

Week 7
8, 0, 4, 4, 0, 16, 7: 39u & 2AF

Not much to report this week, the whole week was an inconvenience of work functions, friends parties and visitors from abroad. All in all I couldn't do much more than pop the pills & hope it kept the numbers down. Considering all the temptation I feel 39u is really quite good. It would have normally been double.

On a positive note, I did find all this drinking quite annoying (I felt like I was force feeding myself ... Beer Yoda Foie Gras). I am looking forward to a slightly quieter week ahead. Perhaps more time for this "exercise" people talk off.

Yeah that is a positive note.

I wonder why you felt like you should keep drinking when you also felt like you were forcing it?

Week 8
0, 5, 10, 0, 11, 12, 6: 44u 2AF


Poor showing, worst since I started on NAL.
Too much going on socially.
No massive blow outs .. more a collective of medium ones.
Going to try harder this week (mental discipline required) & see if I can start pulling my average below the big 30 again.

Regards
BeerYoda

There shouldn't be any mental discipline required.

Are you sure you're taking a high enough dose of nal? I would've expected to see more decline by now. Instead it's increasing, which suggests that you may be getting a partial reward and teaching yourself to drink past the nal.

Increasing the dosage worked for me. My results were mildly promising but not dramatic in the first few months, but when I went to 75 mg it was suddenly, immediately clear that TSM was working, and that was confirmed when I briefly tried switching back down to 50.

That said, "too much going on socially" suggests to me that you might need to consider going AF (or switching early to soda) in certain social situations. It doesn't matter how low your desire for alcohol gets if you're often being put in a position where you feel obligated to drink.

I think I suffer from two "issues"

1. Expectation (people & friends expect me to drink with them .. indirectly pushing me)

2. Pushing past NAL so I can fulfil my traditional "duty" as a drinks companion

Saying that, I still find the NAL works pretty well.

Before NAL a quiet night drinking would be 12-16 units ... Now I give up on 4-6 units

Are you happy with your current life? Would this work for you long-term?