My throat has felt sore after the nal and I wondered about that. Hummm...

My husband Johnny, drinks for anxiety. He gets crazy restless leg which a doc told him it was anxiety that causes it. He also takes Xanax.

We both took 50 mg. yesterday. I felt FANTASTIC an hour after taking my Nal, so calm and relaxed and that feeling stuck with me. Johnny remarked that I acted like I took a quaalude or something. Then I had a few beers and I felt like I used to feel when I was young and new to drinking. I used to get the perfect buzz; just right! But I always drank passed that and usually to sickness. That is my problem, stopping once starting. Anyway, as the afternoon and evening progressed and I continued to drink, I lost my buzz. I drank many beers and today, I'm experiencing my first nal hangover with nausea and dizziness. Johnny is feeling fine.

If anyone has recommendations on stopping drinking after starting, after taking nal, I'd love to hear them. And the Nal is supposed to kick in and make me want to a.) either not start drinking that day and or b.) want to drink less if I do start, correct? I do think it has caused me and my Johnny both to drink slightly less than normal but only slightly.

I want to get high on my Nal today and try not to drink but I'm afraid it will make me feel worse and two, these pills are expensive! Am I wasting them if I take and don't drink? Also curious to see how I feel the next day after taking nal and not drinking. But tomorrow, we are meeting with someone that may invest in our biz so I have to be on top of my game. Can't risk feeling like this tomorrow.

Do the nal hangovers go away in time?

Same here. Also swollen lymph nodes. It's listed as a side-effect. I'm hoping it's transient.


The protocol is to just drink as you normally would after taking the naltrexone. It should stop the horrible craving to drink more, but you may be drinking more out of habit. I'm lucky because it seems to just naturally stop my continued drinking in its tracks. Not only does it not feel good, it actually feels bad after a couple. Is it killing your buzz? If it is, then it's working and the continued drinking out of habit should stop on its own. I don't think there's any reason to force it, especially this soon. Someone with more experience will hopefully correct me if I'm wrong here.


It probably is a waste of a pill in that it won't do anything to extinguish your drinking.

Melissa sums up the naltrexone effect very well. Since the usual pleasure of drinking isn't the same while taking the naltrexone, slowing down, and paying attention to how you feel with drinking on the naltrexone is illuminating when you realize it isn't that much fun anymore.

That alone seems to prevent overdrinking but it seems to be a little different for everybody. At least for me, I agree with Melissa that i know if i have a glass of wine the naltrexone is going to blunt the pleasure, and make me tired as well.

Knowing that, becoming easy to say that forgoing the drinking is fine , I'll generally feel better anyway. That's how it's panned out over time and i think that is good a result as can be hoped for.

It seems different for everyone, It can take a long time, specifically for yours truly.

Hope that helps some.

Magda and Guapo,

I don't want to take over this thread since I have one if my own. Yesterday I had the best buzz going after taking the nal, then I lost it. Guess I'm not a quick responder.

I drank last night (only took 12.5 mgs because of the tummy stuff) and I think even just a little Nal helps. I chugged a glass of wine at the hour mark and I really didn't like it but I drank another glass to chase the buzz. I ended up dumping the rest down the drain and switched to beer because the only way I like beer is ice cold, so I kept it in the freezer between drinks. I feel fairly decent today because I didn't over do it and I took some vitamins beforehand. I the nauseousness is still giving problems and my digestion isn't so great, but nothing a few tums couldn't solve. Good news: No headache. Grinding away! Keek

Keeping this post because it reminds me of what I was accomplishing when I took the Nal

We're all responding to everything!



Interesting. I had dramatic results at 25mg, so I can believe there are a few people who'd see a real difference even at 12.5mg. I'm not sure that's enough to get you cured, but I guess you'll see as you keep going and keep tracking.

Me too. I can't really tell the difference between 25mg and 50mg, so I'm thinking of going back down just to save pills (I order them from an online pharmacy). Did you stay at 25mg, Melissa, or did you use 50mg just to be on the safe side?

I went to 50mg, and I'm glad I did. I noticed later that 25mg didn't actually provide 100% coverage -- it just seemed that way at first because the difference was so shocking.

I've only had alcohol on one occasion since I called cured, and I used 50mg then.

Good to know. It would be nice to double my supply, but it's not worth the risk.