Hey OBN,

Looks like you are doing great. I think it is important to track as well. It really does help you when you think that the TSM is not working. And, like you, I have started to drop weight as well. Starting to look like a teenager with my pants hanging half way down to my toes. I guess the money we are saving will have to go to new clothes.

Hello all, it has been several weeks time since I updated or posted.... For a couple of reasons I may have to create a new profile but will keep for now.

Drinking wise, my first seven weeks were wildly effective! Down from 78.33 drinks to 26.31. However, after that, I have increased and am now higher than when I started. I believe it is due to an anti depressant that I added.

My GF complained about my irritability, and I have been on anti-depressants on and off over the last five years after my mom and wife died in 2010 and 2011. I had not been on any anti depressants prior to that and certainly not when I was sober for 15 years, save six months in 2010.

One AD in particular has been pretty effective for me in the past, but the downside of it, is it also helped hangovers and made it very difficult (in my opinion) for me to stop drinking once I started.

I too knew I was very irritable during those seven weeks but kept hoping it would subside. I did start the anti-depressants again, and in about one week my drinking started to increase. Now it is difficult to say whether the medicine alone was the cause. This past month was the anniversary of my wife's death and one of my children has had a very tough go and that has added a lot of stress. So it has been a particularly stressful holiday season. None the less, my weekly level has increased to 79 drinks this week. That is HIGHER than my first week and very concerning.

My irritability has indeed lessened. My weight has dropped and remained stable. That is good news, and even though my drinking has increased, it is by and large controllable and I am not falling down, black out drinking. But my lethargy has increased dramatically! That is a side effect of the anti-depressant and I vacillate between anxiety and depression. There have been several days the last few weeks where I am in bed sleeping for 12-14 hours.

I also added a very small dose, about 1 mg daily of odansetron (Zofran) because I have it and had read studies about small amounts helping heavy drinkers with early onset AUDs. I don't suspect though that is causing any negative issues.

My plan for now is to continue with my regimen of medications for another 30-60 days to see if things get better again as the holidays pass and my anti depressant levels out. If it does not, I am thinking I will discontinue the anti depressant and add gabapentin instead as I have read several studies about this decreasing the irritability some people experience.

I am also contemplating upping my dose of naltrexone. By and large the first couple of beers taste okay and then taste off as they have since I started naltrexone, but I just drink through it even though it does not taste good. Maybe the anti depressant is robbing my receptors of some naltrexone and I can counteract that. I am pretty sure if my drinking decreases, so will my lethargy.

On other good news, my gf did add naltrexone to one of the drugs she started for weight loss and it has worked very well, and she is very conscious about taking it at least an hour before drinking.

Sorry for the long post, I have been reading and keeping up wtih this site, just not posting lately.

I welcome any thoughts. Enjoy the rest of the holiday season.

Obnoxious No More,

I could not imagine the loss of a spouse and parent, especially during the holidays, for it must be hard. My heart goes out to you.

I think the increase of units is a combination of both. I have read that some antidepressants causes an increase or no change of intake. I think the combination of nal and alcohol can cause depression. The other thing I have learned about antidepressants (myself being on and off them) is they have a possibility of not working if not taken properly and/or starting and stoping them. I am not sure if it is the truth or just a ploy to keep people on their meds.

Upping your dose of nal is a personal thing. I think if you try it for a spell (two 2 weeks or so) and do not see a difference, it is time that is needed and not an increase of dose. You are still very early in this process and I do understand how you feel. I drank through the nal a few times until I started having nal overs, and I realized I needed to stop at a certain amount (no more than 3 glasses of wine). It is very frustrating when you are complaint and not seeing results, but I am unsure if upping your dose will give you the results you are looking for...or it might be life changing.

I do hope that you holiday is bight!

Jaba

Thanks Jaba for the advice/thoughts.

I have always had anxiety. Drinking, or rather, coming off alcohol makes its a 100 fold increase for me. I think you are right on many fronts and for now, I am just going to sit tight. I may have to force some reduced drinking as it is important that my kiddos have a positive holiday. My child that in particular is struggling seems to be making some real progress after my gf, my child and I developed and implemented a plan with our doctor so I hope these all reduce my triggers.

I'd like to think that in part the increase in drinking is because of triggers that I had not experienced since being on NAL and that going through them is exactly what needed to be done.

Given my initial success with NAL, I am convinced that I will find permanent success in time and by tweaking hear and there. I really do think I might have been better riding out the irritability for another month as my drinking had decreased so rapidly that I cannot help but think much of that was normal with that dramatic decrease. But I also don't want to hastily keep going on and off things, so I will give the anti depressant more time to normalize in my system.

Thanks again for the thoughts.

Finally a drop again. I have NOT been tracking as close as I should, but I am pretty close on these.

Even with a few pretty heavy days over the holidays so now that the year is back in swing, I am hoping I will see some normalization in my numbers.

I did find some info on antidepressants and increases in alcohol intake in those with AUD onset earlier in life vs those with and AUD later in life. I have used this website, but never read closely read through the SSRI section. This site also discusses other medications in general for AUD's. Many have probably seen this site before. I may start a new thread regarding it, but wanted to post it here as well. Good information. Take a look.

http://www.uptodate.com/contents/pharma ... Title=1~83

I know I am rather late in answering this but have only just seen the post about you possibly stopping your AD's - PLEASE be really careful if you do decide to do that - long story short I ended up in the hospital with the docs thinking I had had a stroke because my doctor took me off my AD's too quickly and cut me down too fast! None of the docs would actually say that is what it was but I am incredibly healthy and all of the tests came back really good! Such as my heart being compared to that of a mid 20's person - I was late 50's at the time - so please be careful!

Hugs, Maggie

Ben -

How are you getting along with your Doc? I saw your post about him in Sinclair Method Doctors and we have nothing for Nebraska on the "Find A Physician" list.

He is still prescring it for me. I see him next month for a full physical. He said he has no problem prescribing it for this use.

Cool. Maybe ask him if he would mind being listed on the Find A Physician page. Wouldn't want to put him on there without his blessing.

Regarding the AD's, I saw another post by someone who was taking Effexor (venlafaxine) that noticed it was thwarting the Nal, don't know if that's what you were taking.

I take Pristiq which is the metabolite of Effexor. After reading more, I am convinced that is part of the issue. I am working around it, and am back on track. My numbers are looking good and I am feeling better. Thanks.