5dogs,

Looks like things are going well. I'm finding that the desire is continuing to decrease and has accelerated quite a bit over the last few weeks. Changing my routine to provide for more exercise and other activities and creating less and less opportunities to partake has done amazing things for me. Keep up the great work!

End of week 7. Been following the golden rule very closely. Not pleased with any progress this past couple weeks. Been out of town the whole time. Almost every night is spent eating out and drinking with colleagues at restuarants and finishing at the hotel bar. Got to break that cycle. Many times I feel like I'm done, but let myself keep going as long as others are drinking. Going home for a few days and will be under the microscope. Then back out of town again for a week. Still keeping up with exercise every other day and feeling good about that. Periodically I check in on my TSM family here and its good to see folks still trying and making progress.

Thanks for checking in.

Refresh my memory -- is this week seven of doing it right, or week seven including the partial reinforcement?

Hi Melissa,

Week 7 doing it right after 6 months of partial reinforcement. You and others on this site set me straight at the end of 2013. I Logged onto the site to see why after 6 months I wasn't any better, in fact somewhat worse. Now I understand and need to be patient and follow the golden rule, AND make some personal effort.

Disappointed with the results so far. Following the golden rule but made 2 or 3 exceptions in the last 3 months. My volume is not coming down. I still find it enjoyable to drink with Nal. I've read where its taken others on this site 1-2 years to see results, so I will keep going with hope. Thanks.

5dogs,

I am coming up on one year and have been discouraged from time to time. I get especially discouraged when I have a period where my consumption spikes a bit, like it did two weeks ago. That being said, I cannot deny the overall results. My numbers are about 25% from where I started in April of last year and I have not had one embarrassing moment during that entire time. I have had plenty of moments where I've felt badly (physically and emotionally), but I haven't been in the doghouse at all. I now routinely have more AF days a week than drinking days and the positive behavior patterns are getting reinforced with each passing week. For me I definitely have to work at not drinking. As I wrack up the AF days I find that the pressure builds to drink and eventually I succumb to that urge. My hope is that I reach a point where I am having 5 AF days a week every week. When that happens I think I will be able to step back and objectively ask myself the question - what's the point in drinking?

I'm fortunate in that I don't travel in circles where drinking is part of my social life. That helps a great deal. I'm not around the temptation all the time. In fact, I'm rarely around it. I actually go and find it. I also believe that you have to follow the golden rule. I wasn't doing that early on and was not seeing results. Once I adhered to that I found the progress coming much more quickly. Keep on keeping on! We're rooting for you.

Let's see here . . . that's about 13 weeks of actually trying to use TSM. That would normally be the very earliest you'd see a cure, so it's not shocking that you aren't cured, but I would normally expect to see progress by now. Your consumption levels weren't so high that a longer-than-average cure would be expected.

You're making at least one mistake, probably two, maybe more.

http://naltrexonekey.blogspot.com/p/tro ... chart.html

Short version: stop with the so-called exceptions, and find out what dosage of naltrexone you need for 100% receptor blockage.

It's possible -- it's always possible -- that you're one of the 10% whose addiction works via some other mechanism. We see more people who are doing something wrong (or are expecting too much) than we do Ten Percenters, though.

Earlier you wrote this:


Is that still true? Some of us have had to learn what "done" feels like, and how to heed it. It's a slightly separate issue from the actual addiction, in that we are learning an internal signal which most people learned as teenagers.

It's no good having exceptions, the return to addicition is supposed to be much quicker and I would like to guess that 1 exception probably undoes more than one successful time.

What Nal/TSM does is let you realise when you really don't want any more. If you don't kick it in yourself the drug won't take the alcohol out of your hand. If you feel like drinking less and want to give TSM a good go you have to do the leg work.

My recommendation would be to cut out the exceptions and also when you get to the point where you don't think you need any more to drink, don't.

How long are your drinking sessions? If they are longer than 3-4 hours you may need to take another pill. What I did (and still do on the rare occasion that I drink) was take 25mg 30-60 minutes before drinking, then take another 25mg 3 hours after starting drinking. Set an alarm on your phone so you don't forget.

Its been a while since I've checked in. After not feeling enough progress since Jan 1 this year, I wanted to get the shots of vivitrol and perhaps supplement with Nal as needed. My doc sent me to a specialist at a well known hospital in a major city. The Dr has 30 years experience treating alcohol dependancy. They use vivitrol and Nal in treatments, but only when the patient has stopped drinking. She characterized the sinclair method as not main stream medicine. She would not prescribe vivitrol or nal unless I went through the 5-day detox program, followed by counseling sessions including AA. She said it would be irresponsible to prescribe Nal to be used while someone is still drinking. Not only does she disagree with this method she believes it is dangerous as Nal is processed through the liver, and will increase the chance of liver dysfunction. As much as I wanted to believe in the sinclair method, the fact is it has not worked for me. And now after hearing directly an expert's opinion, I have my doubts about it. I know many, if not most on this site have seen good results. I know the Drs have their own agenda to promote their treatments. I am very sorry and disappointed this isnt working out.