Hello Dr. Eskapa,

I've just completed my 4th month on the Method and it's been working better than I had hoped...until this past weekend!
I went away for the 4th of July weekend and drank as much as I used to...

I am mainly a daily drinker with occassional binges. Prior to this I was down to 14 units a week and my daily drinking pattern was much, much improved. Normal social situations were changing as well. Cravings way down in both situations and patterns were changing. Going away with extended family however, was like a blast from the past.

My question is - do I need to specifically put myself into these family 'binge' situations in order to extinguish this type of drinking behaviour?
I only binge like this when I am with extended family overnight and they start the morning with mimosas and continue on throughout the day into the evening...it happens about 4 times a year. Will continuing to extinguish daily eventually help me with these binge situations or does the extinguishing have to be situation specific?

Hopefully this question makes sense...I was in total shock when I woke up Saturday morning and found I could not remember parts of the end of the evening before. That has not happened since I started.

I am still full of hope and very thankful to you and Dr. Sinclair for helping all of us find a way out of this nightmare. It has been such a wonderful 4 months getting a taste of what it feels like to be 'normal'.

Thank you!

H4O EDIT: Dr. Roy responded to me via email.
Hi Happy4Once,

The answer may well be 'yes' .... you may need to extinguish in other
environments that you associated with drinking. This is both a medical and
psychological treatment - the medical side originates in pharmacological
extinction (naltrexone plus drinking) and the psychosocial side - drinking
in all situations you associated with alcohol - this the circumstance may
have been associated with - learned - to be connected with heavy drinking.
I would not worry about this too much... main thing is that drinking and
craving go down and that you have your 'wash out' weekend or days - where
you start have alcohol and naltrexone free periods. The Golden Rule still
always applies!

All the best,

Roy