I've followed the golden rule now for nearly a year and all I can say is that I've wasted about 800 euros on naltrexone and I still drink like a fish. I am beginning to think that TSM is... well.... complete bullshit. sorry. Perhaps there are private interests at play here, or perhaps it only works on those who are not TRUE alcoholics. All I can say is that I am VERY disappointed. Don't waste your money folks.

I'm sorry to hear that it didn't help. We've always known that there's a minority for whom it just doesn't work. It's not always a compliance problem.

I'm not sure the old "TRUE alcoholics" debate has anything to do with it. Some people insist that TSM is only for real alcoholics and not problem drinkers, while others insist the opposite. We can't generalize too much from our own experiences.

Again, sorry it didn't work out. I hope you find an approach that helps you.

Wait a minute . . .

viewtopic.php?t=3652
On Wed Dec 18, 2013 2:23 pm :


That means Day 1 was October 7th of 2013. You're nowhere near a year. You're at about eight months.

If you've really seen no progress at all then I can understand why you're discouraged, but it's too soon to declare yourself one of the 10%. 3-15 months is the usual span, and you're only at about half of the outer range.

We could be more helpful if you gave more information. Following the Golden Rule religiously is great, but there are a few other factors to consider -- did you give yourself any partial reinforcement, do your drinking sessions last a very long time, etc.

OK fair enough, I'm on a regimen of nal + al+ nil so there is no psychotherapeutic aspect reinforcing my own recovery, but (sorry) after reading the book, I expected something. something... yet for me. damn. there's nothing.

Have you considered baclofen? That's an option which can be combined with TSM, so you wouldn't actually have to quit TSM in order to give it a shot.

Thought I'd post an update. I'm on day number 280 now, still black-out drunk every night. Has Nal helped me? I can't say that it has. However, one month ago I started seing a shrink, because I think I'm one of those depressive drunk types. I also take an anti-depressant, which makes it all that much easier to black out drunk. My drinking hasn't gotten better. It HAS gotten worse, but not especially so. Who knows. My shrink is suggesting a detox. We'll see. I'd rather wait and see how the psychotherapy and the Nal meld together, but who knows. The past two days though I was tired of drinking in my head after 3 beers. But, then habit took over. But, I thought in my head that I didnt want it to happen. Anyway, that's all. I'm off for another beer.

Cheers!

Hi, did you try up-ing your dose?

No not yet, but you know what? I neglected to look at some of the older posts that I had contributed to on this forum. Time has passed and a couple of people said that they needed to actively work at the TSM and that the Nal alone didn't cure them. I was a bit disappointed at this because, afer all, that is what the TSM promises. But now that I am in psychotherapy and after having seen some words of encouragement from those that needed to put in some personal discipline, for their own recovery, I am re-inspired (of sorts). At one point I thought this forum was a shill site for Nal producers. And while I cannot rule that out, I must say that I am at least a little bit more encouraged to experiment a bit and see if my 270 days of the "golden rule" might give me enough strength to cut out at least one beer a night for a while and see where that takes me.

God Speed Y'all!

Goat, is drinking still pleasurable while on the naltrexone? Can you tell a difference at all?

Yeah, Goat, I'm not convinced that you're opioid-addicted. If you're addicted via GABA, TSM won't help you at all. You should be seeing results by now.

I second what Magda said -- does drinking feel different than it used to? Even if the standard dose isn't high enough for you, it should feel somewhat different than without nal.

I'd also wonder about learned helplessness.

I made a troubleshooting flow chart a while back:

http://naltrexonekey.blogspot.com/p/troubleshooting-flow-chart.html

Maybe that would help?