Everyone reports that success is not linear -- you are on the naltrexone rollercoaster like almost all of us. But, BIG PICTURE, you are still down substantially from Pre-Sinclair. Stick with it, it's working.

Hi craving -- Part of the passion Sinclair and Eskapa feel for spreading the word about TSM is seeing that alcohol addicts NEVER feel embarrassed or ashamed. So good for you rejecting the urge to beat yourself up.

I glanced at a few of your posts and one of the things you said led to your success is nal itself making you feel pukey if you drink too much. Maybe your body had adjusted to the nal and you don't get this cue anymore.

Or, maybe, having thought your work was done, you just let your guard down and drank whatever you felt like. If so, then the real work is begun. It might help to read the "Drinking Through Triggers" thread in General Discussion.

I notice that at Week 8, your drinking still is half your pre-TSM rate. That's progress!

Do we tell each other "Good job" too often? Perhaps we all take too much credit when things go well and too much blame when they don't. Our only real role in this is to take the nal one hour before we drink. After that, as SpringerRider has said many times, TSM works whether we want it to or not. We do a "good job" when we remind one another of that simple fact that is just so effin' tough to get our collective head around.

Craving - it's ok. You had people on this board shouting out that you were cured at like week 2 or something - it was crazy to do that to you, but I think everyone got excited. And what were you suppose to do, ignore that? No one would, honestly.

It's ok that you are going back up. Nothing about what is happening has anything to do with you secretly believing it would be different for you or anything you did, like Lena pointed out. Even SpringerRider posted somewhere that he thought his honeymoon was going to last forever...I did too, to tell you the truth. It's hard not to when you have more than 2 weeks of dramatically low numbers.

The good news is you know this will work for you. That is the gift of a honeymoon - those that have them know they will respond to the medication, so just keep that in the front of your mind. And no more beating yourself up - you have an addiction and you are addressing it.

Craving - I bet if we were all in the same room and the question was asked what's the number one thing I wish I would have done about my addiction in hindsight...the #1 answer would have been 'I wish I would have been smart enough and brave enough to address it when I was younger'. Good for you. Seriously, the only emotion you should be feeling is pride that you are doing this now.

Thank you so much minneapolisnick, lena and happy4once!

I guess I am just into the normal increase of units - sort of bell curve.
As I said before in April I was prepared for this. But I was not prepared that the low level consummation would last so long!

Lena - Yes I have learned to deal with the pukey feeling and to get around it. Still my Craving has increased which is not related to this pukey feeling in my opinion.

Alcohol is an illness. Even if people tell you - hey all you have to do is not drink. Just use a little will power.
It is not like that. It is an overwhelming power.
Luckily I can still manage to have AF days. If I would continue with my path pre-TSM it would become impossible within 1-2 years I think

I am sure that as long as I stay on TSM - which is actually not very difficult, because I can drink, and there are no rules regarding how much or how often I drink. All I have to do is take the Nal an hour before and let Nal extinguish my learned addiction.

6 units today.

Feels great to be drunk again. I was holding off yesterday, and it was more hard than before to achieve having an AF day.
I am happy for the AF day. At the same time I am feeling great with my buzz, and it feels good to drink.

6 units is the highest I have drunk for ages on one day! I am on the bell curve ... no comment ...

Got today a lot of bottles - as my minibar was running out of drinks. I like the thought that I buy these bottles for my therapy.

LOL. Yeah, Friday after work, my favorite time for therapy.

7 units today (Saturday).

My first non-AF Saturday since ages!! (usually I am always AF on Saturday!)

I actually feel quite good. Maybe it was too early for me to force it very hard to not drink. I think the less I am fighting against it the better it will work

Craving -- I love your attitude! It'll be contagious on the board. Thanks for sharing.

Lena,

Thank you. It is the only thing I can do right now - to stay optimistic.
I have changed from pretty much 4 AF days per day to so far 2 AF days this week (depending if I drink tomorrow or not).

I kept myself under too high pressure. I just have Nal work by itself ...
If I could do it by myself I would not be on Nal therapy I guess

WE kept you under pressure. In our thirst for success we tried to make you the poster child, and I helped lead the dogpile. I think we've all calmed down after the outage and it certainly helped having Springer and Potato each a bona fide success after 5-6 months. Eskapa and Sinclair both repeatedly remind us that a meaningful success -- a cure -- is possible only after at least three months. I think we've learned a valuable lesson at your expense. But you came through it with class and we'll just move on from here. Have a great weekend.