I know Halloween has just passed but this board makes me think of horror movies. It says there are 2,479 members throughout when it was started up and now I can pretty much count on one hand the active members??? Anyway are we all doomed to vanish into thin air once we sign up here, very spooky??
I also know that TSM is fairly new but really only a handful of active members. I am glad that Claudia Christian has been trying to get the word out and now with the documentary "One Little Pill" hopefully it will be able to reach millions of people that are in our shoes with alcohol addiction. It just makes me wonder as supposedly this has been used in other countries for years, so where is everyone?
People say that once Cured they just move on but I have read threads where the persons are progressing, very positive and then poof they are gone and haven't even reached the 1-2 month range. Weird!!!!

One could ask: Why the need to stay on this forum if you are regaining control over your life? I believe it's important to realize that TSM is not based on the group/meeting constellation or mentality. It's a highly individual approach. And frankly, I think a lot of members on this forum are simply busy living and enjoying their new found freedom and don't want to hang on to the past.

This does not mean however, that they are not advocating TSM bigtime outside this forum!!

I gotcha Martrol but really for 2479 members only like 5 people here now????
Yes I know there are lurkers but I see you and me on this board now and the many times I have been on I am the only one?

Well, to be honest, when I've hopefully reached my goal I'll probably say goodbye too! Still being a member but likely not active.

Cheeto/Martrol

Better to be heading towards a better life than a ghostly death (Halloween talk) Ha Ha.

It is a mystery why this site is soooo quiet and why TSM is less well grasped by the many who are seeking a free life without addiction, as we are.

All we can do is support each other, I'm in the early days of TSM myself and if I'm honest I feel quite lonely, however it's because this site is my only available support I try to post and help as much as I can.

Thank goodness for those few who have had success from TSM and stay to help others,

I can reason that the biggest reason there aren't more people is that they disappear once cured. I may well be the same, I hope not however when you are doing something SO important it does become your life, and then when you aren't doing it, its amazing how other stuff takes over.

I too look at the people that are 2 months in and then never post, and I hope that it is because they are cured, and not because they give up. In fact I can't find any people posting 'right that's it, I'm off it just doesn't work' and if there are they are certainly in the minority.

Of course it would help us all if everyone that once posted could be contacted to finish their story... but that's not going to happen. There are 4 or 5 of us active at the moment and we just have help as we can

Hi Cheeto - I too thought that this is a very quiet forum. I wonder if it is because once people regain control of their lives and are no longer obsessed by alcohol that they don't feel the need for support.

I have been a member of My Way Out for a few years and I know that a lot of the very active people on there, some who have been AF for years now, continue to check in and offer support to newbies very regularly. This is very generous of them, they give up a lot of time, but I think it also helps them to reinforce their own commitment to sobriety. I think that reading desperate posts from people struggling to ditch the booze is a constant reminder of why they should not go back to drinking.

I sincerely hope that TSM helps me get control back in my life - and I also hope that when I do, I will find time to come back occasionally to this forum to support new people trying this approach.

I've been reading this forum now for about two years, come to think of it. I heard of TSM in November 2012 researching rehab facilities for a project. I ended up spending about forty hours reading through old posts. This topic is definitely a "top ten" subject, with the usual answer being "They get cured and move on." Which always leads to a top five topic, "Do people really get cured or just give up?"

I can echo what several others have said over the years...If TSM was a religion, I have "witnessed" and "given testimony" to dozens of people in my day to day life over the years and don't think I've made a single "convert."** As excited and enthusiastic as I was when I discovered TSM (I was partially set free from addiction just by LEARNING ABOUT TSM), nobody else seems to be very excited...distant stares, half-hearted, "Hmmm." Probably the #1 hangup is the pill part -- they either don't want to go to a doctor to get a prescription for a pill that will label them an "ALCOHOLIC," or they're very hesitant about ordering pills online (I'm in the U.S., mind you).

**I take that back. One convert from the Married Man Sex Life forum. I touted TSM there and was bombarded mostly with pro-AA gobbledygook, expect for one guy that PM'ed me, tried it, and then later thanked me for changing his life.

I like to read the "archives" here too and there is an amazing amount of information and guidance presented whether they knew it at the time or not. I also think it is interesting that over the life of this forum there Always seems to be <10 active members, usually just discovering Nal like those of us going through it now. The same topics resurface time and time again .. this board is too slow, what does it feel like to drink on Nal, I am drinking more than I did pre Nal, and of course the many "lightbulb" moments those who have come before us experience as they find their own cure. Then the questions is what happens? Do they get their cure and due to the nature of it simply have no need for a support community like many other abstinence or moderation programs require? I would ask those reading this today, if you become your definition of cured, will you keep coming back to post, and answer the same questions over and over to the next group and provide support? This is why I am very grateful for folks like barryb4, plantpr0, melissa1928, and the others who do stay to offer encouragement and experience.

Cheers!

Hi triplab

I recently posted on my weekly progress about this subject. I summarise what I said below because I know it's difficult to keep switching between posts.


It is very encouraging to know there's someone else experiencing the same things. It makes the journey a little less lonely. It's a bit spooky, so many who appear to be doing well with TSM suddenly fall below the radar, I suppose it could be that everyone gets cured and then ride off into the sunset.

IMHO I think that keeping faith in the science is much harder than it should be, I think at least some folk decide to break the golden rule for whatever reason and before they know it they end up back at square one, or even in a worse position than before they started. Then if you've been through weeks and months of SEs and nagging doubts, its probable you won't be in a hurry to start all over again. Having said that there's then a further mystery, if TSM has a low success rate there should be at least some post where people say that TSM hasn't worked for them.

My money is that it's much harder than it appears to get to extinction without support and encouragement. That takes me nicely on to plantprO, Melissa and Barry et al. I know it's a bit dramatic but you are all beacons of light far off in the distance, I and others can hear each other in the dark and choppy sea we find ourselves but without someone else who has been on the journey giving encouragement, I would probably quit before I had the chance to succeed.

Since there's also clear evidence that TSM works for those still posting on here then the KEY is the golden rule (nal one hour before then drink as normal). I'm fascinated that I can have so many conflicting toughts, feelings and doubts over such a simple rule. I intend to continue come what may. However if folk like me are sill seeing little evidence of extinction at 6,8 or 12 months when others around are proclaiming success it must become increasingly temping to quit.

TO ANYONE WHO FOLLOWS ME I PROMISE I WILL FINISH POSTING ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, IF I DONT SUCCEED I WILL POST WHY. IF I FIND EXTINCTION I WILL SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS.