newlife, it does feel like I've been at it for a long time and I'm ready to be at the finish line. And you've been going almost twice as long as me! Hopefully we'll both make it there with patience.

jackson_pdx, my 8-12 drink sessions usually last about 4 hours, I'd say. So that's 2-3 drinks per hour and then I go to bed/pass out. I'm not taking any boosters. From what I've read a single 50 mg dose is plenty for a 4 hour session. I think the people taking the boosters are drinking throughout the day and so they boost up probably after 8 to 12 hours or so.

End of week 6 update! About 50 total drinks, 2 AF days, average of 10 drinks per session. Went 11,10,11,12,6,0,0.

The numbers for this week are pretty similar to last week. I started the week drinking a bit more than I would like to for several nights, but then towards the end of the week I managed to work in some much-needed AF time.

There was one kind of interesting thing that I tried this week: I have been drinking mostly mixed drinks or wine since doing TSM. That alone is strange because I always used to be a beer guy, but for some reason beer doesn't taste good to me when taking Naltrexone. But as an attempt to consume less alcohol, the 5th night this week I told myself I would only drink light beer on the theory that since it has less alcohol by volume, and what seems to be constant is my sip rate, that I would consume less overall. Well it definitely worked. That night I didn't even feel drunk or buzzed at all and after the 6th beer I was ready to call it quits. That was such an unpleasant experience that I didn't have any desire to drink the next day.

I am really starting to feel like I'm getting close to the point where I am indifferent to alcohol and don't want to drink anymore. I can just tell my interest and desire for it is getting less and less. I'm just amazed at how effective this method has been so far. I'm not sure when I'll hit the point that my cravings are completely eliminated, but I suspect it won't be all that much loner. Part of me feels completely ready to quit altogether right now, but I want to make sure I'm not jumping the gun and I'd like to see if I can reduce the amount I'm drinking per session down to a normal human amount before I try to quit completely.

Wow je3625, that is great! I like and admire the way you are thinking! Nal on!! Newlife

ha! who needs Nal? drinking light beer should scare anyone away from AL!!!

I agree with zontar!! haha newline

End of week 7 update!
Total number of drinks - 20. AF days - 3. Average # drinks / session - 5. Daily numbers were 7, 11, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1.

This may have been a breakthrough week. As you can see from the daily totals, after the first two days of continuing on my same old pattern I decided to try for a change. I am tired of getting drunk almost every night. I am ready to go for the goal of moderate drinking, if any. I decided to make a new goal for myself of simply never consuming more than 2 drinks in any given day. And realistically most days I would like to consume 0 or 1. Right now that seems to be a lot easier than complete abstinence because I can allow myself to drink if I am craving it. And what I have found so far (granted it's only been a week since I started this) is that some days I want to be able to have that drink or two, but then once I have it, it isn't particularly exciting or interesting and I'm perfectly satisfied to stop after that 1. So I think it's working so far. I even poured out the last couple of sips of my 1 drink the other night because I was just tired of it. If I can continue to keep up this pattern of having 0, 1, or at most 2 each night over an extended period, and if the desire and craving to have that little bit continues to decrease or go away, then I'll hopefully be able to add myself to the cured list. I still feel that the "mental obsession" is there somewhat because I am thinking a lot about drinking. So I'm not ready for the cured list just yet. But I'm guessing that the obsession will eventually go away if I can continue the behavior of drinking non-alcoholically. Thought pattern lags behavior.

It's been so helpful for me to post these weekly updates whether anyone reads them or not, just to diary all of it for myself. Best of luck to all.

GOOD FOR YOU!!! That is wonderful!! More people are reading and pulling for you than you know. Keep going. XOXO Newlife

very nice! sounds like you have a good plan and attitude. stay on it JE!

End of week 8 update!
Total number of drinks - 6. AF days - 2. Average # drinks / session - 1.2. Daily numbers were 1, 1, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1.

So this week I actually drank within the parameters of a healthy, moderate, normal drinker. Unbelievable. I never thought that would be possible or expected this method to work so quickly and miraculously. If I can continue to post numbers like this and not go back to heavy drinking, I may soon be ready to add myself to the cured list. I feel like my mindset towards drinking has completely changed. The idea of having a drink or two seems nice to me, but then once I have that drink there's just no compulsion to have any more, and I feel satiated and ready to stop. The idea of polishing off a whole 12-pack just seems disgusting now, and yet just a couple of months ago I was in a place where when I was on a binge I'd go through a 30-pack in a night. What an amazing transformation in such a short time.