Hi 1-4, nice to meet you here

It's been fascinating reading through your thread. Your drinking pattern, craving, and amounts seem quite similar to my old habits. The only difference I can see so far is that my local cinema here in England does sell alcohol, so I can extinguish as I enjoy a film!

I think it's great that although there hasn't yet been huge movement on your total weekly units, you're focusing on all the little signs that change is taking place - and there seem to be a lot!

All the best to you, I look forward to following your progress

8

Hey 1, Bob only had 6 units for the entire week! Now that is a huge reduction in units!

Thanks for the kind words - when I re-read the post above it sounded more depsondent than I actually feel.

I'm still very positive about the method, and if it takes 9 months, then so be it. That said, the pattern that others have experienced is 'lots of same' before the 'light-switch' moment, so I'm optimistic that the time-frame will be shorter than 9 months.

Hi 1-4
Well done you for maintaining you realistic optimism. It is bewildering isn't it? I still cannot seem to predict anything with TSM. Sometimes i get a buzz, sometimes i don't. Sometimes i enjoy the taste sometimes its yuch. At times i have set out to get 'rat arsed' as we say- because of feeling fed up and found i couldn't drink much. Then other times like last night even though i was really tired cos i had been partying the night before i ended up polishing off over a bottle of red wine on my own. When the previous night i had been in full on party mode, including indulging in wacky backy, i drank about 6/7 units over a 7 hour period! If it weren't for this board i would be tempted to be more pessimistic.
By the way did you here the discussion on the Joe Duffy prog during the week about alcoholism? As usual no mention of anything other than AA and treatment centres. I actually emailed them about TSM but unfortunately couldn't get to listen to the prog to hear if it was read out. I don't think so as usually the researchers contact people if they are interested in a topic.
Onward and downward!

I agree with Bob. You shouldn't be too concerned at this point. In fact, months 2-3 were the most difficult for me. I believe SpringerRider also reported having backslide during this time.

It's difficult to predict how far out safe drinking is for you. Our drinking levels are driven by our craving level. I found that when my craving level was higher than about a 4 on our subjective craving scale, I would fall into my old drinking patterns fairly easily. Once my craving level stayed under about a 4, was when the real drop in consumption occurred. In fact, drinking levels can drop pretty dramatically once that craving level is down -- look at Bob's drops right at the end. It can almost seem like someone flips a switch.

Q

9 weeks in now. If I'm honest I'm not seeing as much progress as I'd like, but there are some positive signs I guess. I'm still slipping into some stupid habits, that I should know better than to indulge, and that is keeping my units high.

One of these is a 'silly circle', which goes something like this:

1) It's 9:30 pm and I've worked hard and taken my Nal. Now I'm entitled to a drink
2) Mmmm, this tastes nice
3) I'll just watch some TV and relax while I finish this drink
4) Wow - who knew the Atacama desert had that many interesting features
5) oooh, my drink is finished, I'll get another 'small one' to see out the last 20 minutes of this fascinating program
6) ooh, I feel a bit peckish - I'll get something to eat
7) Wow, that was a great TV program, I'll just finish this snack and drink and then go to bed
8) Might as well flick around on TV
9) Hey look - a documentary about the battle of Thermopylae
10) right drink finished, I'll just watch this fascinating program till the next ad break
11) I don't really need X hours sleep - X-0.5 is fine!
12) mmm, still feel thirsty - it isn't really that late, just another small one
13) You idiot - it is now 2 hours after you said you'd go to bed, you've just had 10 units that you didn't need (or even really want that much), plus random snacks. You do however have significantly more expertise when it comes to Trivial pursuit

1-4, I know that circle of silliness oh so well! It was exactly my pattern before TSM really started to kick in. Don't worry about it at this stage, just keep up with the program, and take comfort in the fact that many of us who are beginning to see results were right where you are at that stage in the game.

Hi 1-4
I love the 'circle of silliness' description and recognise it all too well. Even on nights when i'm not drinking i do the snacking/watching stupid programmes/ messing about on laptop etc rather than going to bed at sensible times. I am quite impressed at the intellectual calibre of the progs you watch mine are more in the order of 'The Medium' and 'The Shield'. To be honest (in my case at least) some of it is a function of not having anyone to cuddle up with if you one does go to bed!
anyway i won't reiterate what others will say- keep the faith!

Its not always so intellectual sbts LOL
Last night I got engrossed in a history of californian music from 1965 to 1975 LOL

I've heard good things about The Shield in any case.

You may be right about having someone to cuddle up to - I'm off to RussianBridesRUs.com LOL

Hi 1-4
How did it go this week?