I'm on Day 9. The first day I took 25 mg in the late afternoon and didn't like the side effects AT ALL. So I cut back to 12.5 for 5 days, taken with a glass of milk and saw no side effects. Then bumped up to 25 with milk and now no side effects. 37.5 last night and will continue a few more nights before seeing if I can stablize without side effects at 50 mg. Wish me luck!

Since I'm titrating up slowly, prolly my results for week 1 are kind of pointless. But I have noticed it's easier to stay with 4-6 oz total of bourbon or gin per night. Before I started this I was sometimes having 8 or sometimes even 10 oz per night.

I'm also following a CBT workbooks to make me aware of triggers, responses and etc.

Not seeing any significant changes as yet but remain...The Optimist.

Week one (titrating up from 12.5 to 25 mg during week.) -- 28 units

Good for you going up so slowly - it is a good idea..... post if you have any questions,

hugs, Maggie

Yeah, it's kicking in. I was on 25mg for a bit over 5 weeks because the SE's were really difficult to deal with. Still dropped from 12/day to 4-5/day. Best luck getting to 50, for sure!

I like the idea of the CBT workbook. Which one are you using?

I've been waiting for this brand new book that was just published in December of 2015 and was able to buy it as a kindle edition. The focus is on trying to stop drinking totally. But she mentions that this just isn't going to work for some people and references naltrexone and the Sinclair Method at one point. Which is what reminded me of what I'd read about this method a few years ago when I was living in Mexico and couldn't get naltrexone shipped there.

Let me look up the title....The Addiction Recovery Skills Workbook: Changing Addictive Behaviors Using CBT, Mindfulness, and Motivational Interviewing Techniques (New Harbinger Self-Help Workbooks)

"About the Author
Suzette Glasner-Edwards, PhD, is associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As a principal investigator at the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, her NIH-funded research in the area of behavioral treatments for addictions is widely published. She also maintains a private practice where she specializes in the use of cognitive behavioral, motivational, and mindfulness-based techniques to treat addictions and mental health problems.

Foreword writer Richard A. Rawson, PhD, is professor in residence in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and codirector of the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs. He has worked in the substance abuse field since 1974. Rawson started the Matrix Institute on Addictions and conducts training on topics including basic principles of addiction and addiction treatment for counselors, MFCCs, psychologists, and physicians, and much more."

I made my own spreadsheets and worked my way through it and it's made me much more aware of things like my own personal 'triggers' for having a drink, my rationales for drinking and it has helped me to start thinking about other activities I could try to sub in at some of those times.

Like all of us here, probably??, I would really like to continue to 'drink socially'. So Sinclair seems like the first thing to try for me. And, optimistically speaking, I hope it will be the last thing I have to try to get more of my life back and preserve my health.

You and every other alcoholic. The fear of a life without alcohol is unimaginably terrifying to anyone dependent on alcohol.

However, once TSM works it's magic, you might be surprised. We are all different. Keep an open mind because what you think now will change.

Actually, a life without alcohol doesn't terrify me. But right now it sounds pretty boring.

It can be hoped I'll feel differently once the behavior begins to extinguish itself and I find other ways to alleviate boredom and stress.