Very cool! Glad it worked out in the end.

Brittany,

I did not get your message, and I have no clue as to why. If you ever need to contact me please email me, for I will receive emails. Thanks Joe for answering that.

JoAnna is at the C-3 Europe (Joe gave you her email) or at the Options saves lives forum. Her email is not a link, you will have to copy and paste that into a new email message. There are others that can do the counseling, but JoAnna has been through the program and is "cured" (so is Claudia). I have found her to be the most helpful, and active, but anyone at the C-3 can help. If you go to C-3 Europe (http://cthreeeurope.com) over to the right is a support link.

I do hope that this doctor that wrote you some scripts will work for you, but remember that JoAnna or C-3 (and us) will always be here if he doesn't work out. And I thought that JoAnna and the others did FaceTime or Skype for sessions (I could be wrong), so it is a face to face session, and I did reach out to her through an email, but it was a short response and not a session.

So are you going to continue with this doctor, or are you on the hunt for another?

Jaba

brittany i sound just like you. message me.

Hi everyone...

please send good vibes my way. I'm going through a rough patch. At some point, I started drinking more, and then I started sleeping less, and then I kept drinking more because I felt so terrible all the time... and now I have been back to drinking during the day, which I haven't done in six months. I am so exhausted and constantly drinking, it's addling my decisions and I'm becoming erratic again, which happened before.

Today I am starting over. I hate that I did this to myself again.. it's not exactly like last time, i'm catching it sooner but still. When I am in the middle of this, it seems like I have the answers and I can just drink another bottle of wine and everything will be ok.

I have been drinking around three bottles of wine a day for about a week. One good thing about the Sinclair method is that I have totally lost my taste for hard liquor, so at least this is wine now and not shots. But still bad.

Another thing I will disclose is that I STOPPED taking my pill!? Why and how I do not know. It's not like I was depressed or anything.. I think I just got lazy one day and didn't take it, and I still drank modestly, so I was like, ok, maybe it's fine. And I was lazy again the next day, and as before when i did this it gradually went from a couple of glasses of wine to empty bottles laying in my hallway.

I took it yesterday for the first time in a couple of weeks and I will take it again today. Enough.

To compound my worries, I just started dating someone new... He thinks I am perfect in every possible way but I have kept this totally secret from him. I'm sure he sees that I drink more than average, certainly more than he does, but I have not put a name on it, and I am ashamed to. Is it in any way ethical to just say, hey, I should cut back for health reasons (or something like that), instead of calling a spade a spade?

Lots of stuff going on in this post, I know. Hi guys, hope all is well with you

Brittany -

Welcome back, I'm glad to hear you're back on TSM! I hear of others from time to time that go off and on Nal, some of them just seem to miss the old high. Whatever it is, just let us know where you want to get to and how we can support you. We want you to know this is a safe place for you to come to, just bring whatever is up for you. It's ok.

One thing that I ask folks is whether they're taking any other meds. Some can have an impact on TSM, like benzodiazepines. Others, like SSRI antidepressants can cause increased cravings whether or not you're using Nal. It just depends on the med and the person, it's not a sure thing. Venlafaxine (Effexor) and Paxil seem to have that effect more than others, but once again, not for everybody. One thing you might want to ask your doc about is Gabapentin. My TSM doc prescribed it for me and I take 300mg before bed every night, it helps get you down into "slow wave" sleep. Others here have had luck with it too and it may help the Nal do it's job better to boot. Anyway, enough of the technical stuff...

Well, you know that TSM works for you and it seem like you'd cut your drinking down a fair bit, keep on with the Nal and lean on us, I'm sure you'll get there again.

Nal on, Brittany!

I've had 11 alcohol-free days out of the last 20. I don't have too much of an update other than that...still not totally abstaining, obviously, but gaining a lot of self control, and it's so great to not have a reason to take the nal!

Cinco de Mayo is coming up, and that, as with all 'drinking' holidays, will be a challenge. I am loathe to forego the festivities altogether, but I am doing the buddy system... I will be with a friend that does not have an alcohol problem, and who knows about mine, so he will help me make balanced choices and still enjoy the day.

Excellent, Brittany! Love your plan for Cinco de Mayo, let us know how it goes!

Brittany, I just saw your last two posts. Worried about you, but it sounds like the nal is working. PLEASE PLEASE keep taking it, this is a life long thing and you can see how badly you need it. Do this for yourself.

Re the ethics question. I have been on TSM for a year and have told NO ONE other than those on this forum. Not my husband, family, doctor, kids, no one. I just don't have the courage or want their judgments, etc. I just say "I am cutting back, it makes me feel better." No one has questioned it. So I wouldn't worry about the new guy in your life in that way. I would just worry about YOU.

Please keep posting because I do worry, especially about people like you who started around the same time as me.

Nal on!! Newlife

I am so glad that you decided to come back and open up with us. You could have easily decided to do what most of "problem drinkers" do and ignore your problem and continue on the path of misery in the morning! You know what you have to do and it sounds like you are doing it - so do not worry about what happened in the past - just move forward. Another lesson learned.

As far as telling anyone - I feel it helps to stay stealth. Why add the extra pressure of someone watching to see if you will have a third or a fourth glass of wine. It adds extra pressure to both of you. I have only told a couple of my drinking buddies who really need to know about it. So far no takers - but I feel that I have given them the TRUE option to cut back their drinking -if they take it is up to them.

Best of luck and keep us posted

Britt, please know that we all support you, even us that don't post as much (like me). You can do this! I am in a period of being usure but this forum is so supportive. We all have your back!!
If I didn't have this support group, I don't know where I would be...be strong and keep us up to date, it works! Even on the worst days!
Wish you the best and just be you...