Hi Kris , thanks alot . I was just reading your post over on yours and see it's been a bit rough .
My take on this summer time thing is that we've to go through it and it may well throw parties and excess and Extinction practice too , which we all need . In a month it'll be over and for you and I that 'll make six months . So then we get really serious with the efforts , it'll be easier for we'll be further on and have less circumstantial distraction . You may well be surprised and see better days before that . In any case don't loose heart ( course you won't ! ) This 'll work .

Happy ,
thanks for posting here . Yes , i did see somewhere that NAl works for cutting .
As it has happened fairly infrequently the last year ( As it was really BAD at the start ) I think things are on the move at a deeper level and this was a sad lapse .
So I hope we'll see it pass with adulescence and not have recouse to NAl . I wonder how it'd work because , well , it seems unthinkable to take it an hour before cutting and extinct over six months .
I 've thought about your mentioning back abit that the more we do AF's the less we crave . This is something I'm monitoring vey closely now . I do think the more we practice the AF's the more we can add them on and the longer the craving stays low . Then there comes a point where they come back which I guess is inevitable til we're fully de addicted .
Today is my fifth AF something I've never done on tsm ( apart from first weeks when I had difficulty letting myself drink - knuckle wise ). For three days no craving
yesterday was some craving medium strength then today it's less . I intend to drink
tomorrow so it'll be interesting to see if it's moderate or not .
All the best .

ELFERN!! 5 AF DAYS - oh my gosh! That is awesome!

I agree - that if the cravings kick in after a few AFs it just means you are not quite there and need to keep extinguishing...when you are really nearing being cured the diminish in cravings will stay flat for normal situations.

Keeping your daughter in my thoughts and prayers - hope she pulls herself back out of where she has slipped. True - not sure how occassional slips would be helped by Nal.

Week 21

The figures: mon - fri = AF .
Sat 10 drinks (15 uk units ).
Sun : 6 drinks (9 ukunits )

Resuming drinking on the sixth day did take an abusive form . there was a certain
constellation of factors creating ideal conditions for the perfect drink for me such triggers were a bunch of worretting worries on the backburner
( ANXIETY ) , a full responsability free day , I 'm on holiday, and all the rest . Well there's always a reason so long as I'm still addicted, and I am .
But I'm greatly encouraged because i'm sliding out of it , the AF's are the proof but more so the absence of craving , bizarrely there was only craving on day 4 AF ( not 5 ! ?)
I felt like I was trailing the happy tracks of Q on day five , then I felt the cautionary reflection of Bob when I bumped and spiked .
It IS working . We're getting there .

Hey Elf - I'm also sorry about your daughter, and will keep her in my prayers. But, way to go with the drinking! Awesome progress. . .so happy for you.

I'm still not having much luck with AF's, but everything else is improving, so I'll take it. Glad to sign in and see such a good report.

Hello Elf - I'm on vacation and just popped into check progress on a few old friends - where are you?

Hope you are doing well - please post if you have a minute - I need my Elfern fix.

Sorry if I missed a post elsewhere - I'm been short on time at work lately...

Hello , hello Happy,
Hello , hello everyone .
No, no posts for a while here as I too was away and cyber free .
Gosh happy I saw you on a new cured list , I'll have to get reading and catch up alot
but that's just brilliant hope you're feeling great and having a good holiday ?

Well , it may not have been the best time to do it but I quit the cigs on Mon and if anyone wonders when it's good to tackle it , just go for it with the right attitude .
Despite all said that NAl 's no good for this I feel it's easier now than before but that's also as I don't drink to the point that my will power fizzles out with the nth drink .It makes a lot of sense that for some and me the drinking needs sorting first to give the smoking the best shot . I just had to get this done and thought it best b4 the work comes back .
I feel confident that all will fall into place soon with drinking as for now I've a residual habitual holiday drinking approach but behind it feel little strong craving .
So in acouple of weeks I'll be testing my mettle and stretching the AF's and have a clearer idea on just how cured I am .Then get myself on the cured list n'est ce pas ? (It has been five and a half months so I'm ready to move onto a new phase and prepared to exert full effort on the attack of the habit ). So we'll see .....

I've done my bit of writing and now I'll set to some reading and hope to see fine things for all fine folk here and, well , it's not always fine so hang in there we're heading to the cure of the century

Week 22 , 23 , 24
Such enthusiasm to chuck smoking makes me declare my high hopes , yet it is a road I've trod many atime . It is true that alc is a big enemy to stopping the cigs
but it is also true that once a week or fortnight I still tend to have a heavy drink
and that is risk land for me .
Last night that happened and I was going up the wall wanting a cig and batled with idea to drive miles to get them as the evening wore on . Things just couldn't have been worse , therewas an ongoing row in the house where my wife decided to restart smoking and my daughter was begging for the right to officially begin and tap me for the funds to do it Against this I myself was drinking more than usual to calm my smoking needs and the desire to smoke started rockettiing.
Awful , hideous night I survived but can't have this happen again , either crack or suffer rottenly . And I'd just said that the week was easyish for the cig stop ? Well that's still true it was til last night .
Anyway I wish to go on with this aim but do not like the effect it may have on my drinking too . I'm not a stoic heroic but will just have to suffer some transfer of addiction in the short term , if I can do this now at the end of the hols and finish my six months extinguishing triggers somewhat .
Last two weeks I was away , not so far here in france with my wife's family . Drinking opportunities abounded and I had to to be strict to impose a couple of Af's
although drinking was nearly daily it was reasonable

wk22 = 2 AF's 40 uk units
wk 23 = 2 AF's 48 uk units
wk 24 finishes tomorow probly about the same total but 1 AF

Frankly I 'm sick of the long holidays so typical of france in the summer , really excessive and more so in academia , total death of the protestant work ethic
Quite lovely but bad news for Alky though
So in conclusion I feel I'm keeping the lid on alot of things but want to finish the hols
buckle my stop smoking and smash the habitual force of my drinking .
Role on the autumn !!
So that's where I am now and wanting it over to complete my cure , maybe a little parenthesis because I feel so ready to serial AF but will wait a week or two as I feel my limits tested quite enough for now .

Yeah - Elfern is back!

Quitting smoking in the midst of this - that's very heroic indeed. Sounds like you had a horrific time of it last night so I hope that was the worst and it's easier going forward.

Your numbers are also impressive for being on holiday in France - you are still at half your consumption instead of spiking way up, that's wonderful Elfern. You will be moving down in units soon - hope the cigarette cravings give you a break tonight.

I'm still catching up after my week long break - so much can happen in a week...new "cured's", fights & resolutions, new members. Who has time to drink when there is so much good voyeuristic reading here to do?

Glad you are back again - I always feel like I'm reading a poem when I read your posts, such a unique style.

hi happy and WTE ,
Oh Happy , you're too kind
WTE , I'm to pm you .
Now look girls .... I'm so sorry to disappoint ( and myself ! ) but I just can not hack the hero role and alas it got very, very tough on sunday . I've just had to abandon the quit . For five days it was relatively easy but when the rows started and the psychological element I just had to rethink . Actually it had got me into comfort drinking every day and no AF taking this really isn't what I want in week 24/5.
Too bad ,, because when you do crumble you wonder was it worth all the agro ??!
So I'll just have to come back for it later and get cured one drug at a time !
In fact all the stuff we've done here does make me wonder if champix wouldn't be a saner way to go about it . As it seems like a kind of NAL for cigs ?? But I'd have to be off NAl to do that .
Anyway thanks for the encouragement , alot ! I see your point happy about the holiday spike as relative , frankly I had a much dimmer view of it . I know what my graph would look like which is why I'm not keen to publish it ( plus I haven't a clue how to do it with the recent upturn it would start to look like Bob's in reverse . i imagine those ever optimistic sales people who pull out their charts and doublespeak transforming the dire into "challenge" and "promise "
But then again , true i drink less than before , rarely exceed a bottle and a hlf of wine and usually just 3/4 of a btle . Progress is progress , look foreward to reading
about your continued progress shortly .