Ditto! I want to be able to celebrate a long weekend without getting crazy. So, I will be af today and imbibing judiciously over the weekend.

You know how the saying goes, 'I like cooking with wine sometimes I even put it in the food.' That's me too. Cooking and wine do go together. That's the habit part of drinking that is so hard to kick. Lately I have been only drinking water with dinner instead of wine. It kind of depends but I then think of having a nice dark stout or rich beer as a sort of desert. That at least helps me cut down on one drink for the night. If it's a rich pasta sauce though then wine is a must with dinner but then I'll just have to skip the desert!

The book does go into some detail about Naltrexone blocking other pleasures in life and even mentions food. I have not yet felt this sort of thing but they mention it in the book for obvious reasons. Anything that produces endorphin is going to be blocked so they even recommend as some have mentioned on your alcohol free days to do some things that will actual reinforce positive behaviors like cooking, going on a hike or a bike ride, that sort of thing. In that way TSM can not only be used to extinguish bad behaviors but reinforce good ones.

I was actually really quite worried about this when I started TSM almost 3 months ago now. In fact I had purchased my Naltrexone and set a target date to start only to waffle for another month worried about what would happen especially in my case to my exercise and training regimen. Would I make my love for bike racing go extinct? What about the endorphin release felt in love? Will I no longer love my wife? What about my cute little cats that give me so much joy every day? Will I not care to pet and hold them any more?

So far the answer is no, none of the above. And besides the trade off is so very well worth it even if there is a mild case of blah, disinterest or lack of pleasure in the simple things. The misery of alcoholism is over and that in and of itself is well worth almost anything. I'll tell you what gives me the greatest pleasure now is when I think back to the way I was just 3 months ago where all my decisions were made at the bottom of a bottle and to where I am now almost completely in control over the raging monster whose relentless grip on me seemed to be forever. For the Lord of the Rings fans it's like when Gollum finally gave up his ring, I'm just hoping that like Gollum nothing happens to make me want my self destructive precious back.

So far so good.

I like the idea of having a day where a number of us try to all go AF together and see if that helps in any way. I see a couple of votes for Friday and one for Thursday. Anyone else want to give this a shot? I will either try for Thurs or Fri, or possibly both.

Je,

I am glad you are interested in having an af day! It does help having others along for the ride.

I was af yesterday and I am af today, and I was planning on Friday and Saturday as well. Unlike the others I do not get that rush from being off the nal. so I was going to try to be off of it 4 days this time (last time it was 3). I decided that I would see how many days it takes for me to have those "feel good" endorphins. I am doing things that will reinforce those feelings, but nothing is happening. It was something that Steve said today that made sense. It had to do with drug abuser and how long they had to wait being off the nal. before they were able to get a buzz, and it is longer than 3 days. I know there has to be other things in play, like how fast your body metabolizes the drug and things like that, but since I am old and I have a slow metabolisms I bet it is going to be more like 5 days for this drug to clear my system.

The only good thing I get out of these af days was the first day that I did drink it was really disappointing. Like waiting to ride a roller coster and it wasn't all that it was supposed to be type of disappointment. No fulfillment that first night, and then the next night was habit as usual (until this Wednesday when we went af). I think we all are in that habit boat. And af days are the only thing that can wake us up out of that routine.

Keep posting

Jaba

Je,

Do you remember how long it took you to get to the full dose? There is someone having a hard time that posted in the "Be Prepared" section with "Poll: Titration Question". I told him how I titrated my dose to 50 mg, but I cannot remember being nauseated. Do you have any helpful hints?

Jaba

Jaba - it takes me to the 3rd day AF and then on that day I feel more or less back to normal - on the 4th day I was walking the dogs and got that 'it is good to be alive' feeling. Re being AF on other days apart from Wednesday - I am going to try to not drink two days in a row - and also have at least 2 AF days together each week - sounds complicated and have not worked it out yet - was AF Tues and Weds, drank yesterday and am going to be AF today.

Hugs, Maggie x

je3625 sorry I didn't see this post in time, but I was AF yesterday. A few of us were doing some AFs together this week and last.....the thread is called Why Not Wednesday or something. Hard to keep track of all these posts, I know.

I did it yesterday because I said I would, but it was making me anxious for about a two and a half hour period while I was hungry and cooking dinner. I guess that is white knuckling? Then once I ate it went away. I'm not sure if "forcing" is good or not. I'm just experimenting, knowing that at least no one here will judge me if I don't do it after all.

Ocean, I'm impressed re your skipping the wine with dinner.

Nal on!! Newlife

Je,

I just wanted to check in to see if you were able to do an af day and how things felt.

I hope all is good in your world,

Jaba

I've been thinking about it, and I think it would be good for me to go ahead and make an attempt to go completely AF. After 3 consecutive AF days last weekend, my number of drinks each day this week has gone 1.5, 4.5, 5.5, 12, 14.5. Notice a disturbing pattern with that? I'm not really even enjoying it, but when I'm in that daily drinking habit it's hard for the numbers to not creep up like that. I can feel the Nal working, but as many people have said on here the habit is still giving me trouble. I'm really getting tired of putting so much time and thought into my nightly drinking and I would love to just be completely AF, so I'm going to give that a shot. Granted I've tried that a million times before in my life without success, but maybe my 5 months of TSM will help the effort. And actually, even if I don't succeed at remaining totally AF and I do drink from time to time, if I just keep the mindset that I'm trying to be AF as opposed to being a moderate drinker, that will probably help keep the weekly numbers a lot lower.So that's where I'm at right now! Wish me luck and I'll continue to report back on how it's going.

Wishing you lots of luck e3625! looking forward to reading how you progress. newlife