Well, I might have started it if I believed it would turn me normal. I would have done it exactly once, then run away from it.

I think you have a point about the spouses, too. There have been some anecdotes of people ditching the pills and only pretending to use the method.

You dont have to look too far to find people like that.

Barry, you want to weigh in here?

Just wanted to post an update: Everything is going great! Back in March I was able to quickly get down to 1 liter of wine a night, and a few glasses of wine with lunch on weekends. Didn't take long after that to stop drinking during weekend lunches, and to get down to 750ml of wine each night. I am now about 10 weeks in, and for the last 3 or 4 weeks I have had 2 glasses of wine with my dinner, and never any more, and never any wine during the day. Boy, do I get a lot done now! And it is effortless. I always bring a soda along with my wine to the dinner table. Sometimes I think alittle about having a 3rd glass after the 2nd, but never enough to get up and actually get it. Instead, I drink the Sprite and somehow just forget all about that 3rd glass.

I am curious about going alcohol-free for a day (or week, or whatever), but after 35 years I am sort of afraid! Not for any good reason, -just afraid! It's wierd, but I am doing so well that I am not all that concerned about it. It will happen, probably all by itself.

I have never forgotten to take my pill. This program is WAY too good to be true, but it's working for me!

When I think of all the people struggling with all the demons when there is such an effortless way to escape! I thank God I found out about it before going through all the rehab stuff or having something really bad happen.

And another bonus: Exactly 1 hangover (early on) in over 10 weeks! Amazing...

Totally awesome Clarion! WTG

I'm really glad to hear that.

Good work! I am also a firm believer that this works, if you follow it correctly.

Started this last summer, and was able to cut down from two or three daily bottles of wine for many years, to a total of 18 drinks this last month, at least three or four alcohol free days a week, and always use the naltrexone.

Getting some education on the reasons why I drink in the first place, why drinking in general really isn't good for anybody, was what helped me the most though.

Since getting a handle on that, I cannot imagine why I would ever want to drink to excess again. I discovered I can like myself again, not feel guilty, not sneak around and hide bottles etc., and to me that is the best thing of all.

A life without drinking all the damn time would've been unthinkable back then, believing I would be bored out of my mind.

I discovered just the opposite, the lessened drinking has made the rest of my life significantly better, much more clearheaded, and much happier.

Yee-hah

"A life without drinking all the damn time would've been unthinkable back then, believing I would be bored out of my mind."

The same for me, exactly! Unthinkable, all by itself. And bored. But not just bored. I also was convinced I wouldn't enjoy things anymore or feel any positive emotion. Let me explain:

I love to build & create things, and to tackle tough challenges and projects/adventures (details irrelevant). Previously, when I would accomplish something noteworthy, I would feel little joy from it until my ultimate reward: Alcohol! I literally would feel nothing until I'd sit down and begin drinking, and then all the warm feelings of accomplishment would begin to flow. It was the favorite part of any endeavor I would partake in. And since forever, during all the millions of times I would fantasize about a life without alcohol, this fact would haunt me. I thought my life would be without joy if I could somehow give up alcohol.

Since Naltrexone, living without alcohol is no longer unthinkable, and I find I am NOT bored. In fact, I do a helluva lot more. It's true I no longer sit and drink at the conclusion, and thus the warm wonderful feelings do not flow. But where I always thought this would be dreadful, instead it's not bad. Hard to explain exactly, but it's not bad, and not really good. It's just kind of life, and it's okay. And it is WAY better this way, without all of the negative stuff that came with all the drinking. I guess it's just normal, and I am fine with it.

It's definitely a journey, and a great deal of emotional change.

I know if you asked me six months ago if In could imagine a life without drinking I would've thought you were out of your mind. My thought process is very similar to yours on that.

Now I'm not drinking the vast majority of the time, and finding I was completely wrong. The alcohol infused and addicted brain is not really capable of seeing the whole picture, once I got away from the heavy usage, things started to make good sense.

Astonished would be a good way to put it, and it just continues to improve, so I have no intention of ever ever ever going back there.

I too find that alcohol, once shackled to it, does a great job of redefining life, one's capabilities, and one's ambitions. Stripped of that control, in sobriety I recall prior, healthier selves. I also can envision a future self of far greater value and appeal.

But the astonishing power of alcohol, for me, is the way it delimits my personal sovereignty, and so effortlessly reduces my life to daily acts of self-obliteration -- such obliteration appearing utterly reasonable and justifiable.