I am heavily reading now the book "The Cure for Alcoholism" - I will show her one or two chapters and ask her to read it.

What the book does is it puts the main weight on "IT WORKS" - rather than saying it will take you this amount of time. According to the charts displayed in the book both our units should be falling like a stone now - which they are obviously not.

Still it gives me confidence that this therapy works.

I heard before that the therapy works for about 80% of the patients - Roy Eskapa has put an interesting remark about that ... "Many of the failures, but not all, were in patients who did not take the medication."

You appear to have had the idea of the increased dose faster than me. I am mainly looking forward to increase to 75mg and stick there for 1-2 months.
If I do not notice a difference then I will increase it to 100mg. Ideally the 75mg will bring the success.

Craving,

I agree with WTE. By all means, have your GF read some of the posts here. I know it's hard when your pattern doesn't follow what you read in the book. But we are all different, and it's still working - even for "late bloomers" like me. Even though my time line is so long, I have a downward trend in both units and craving level - just slower than most. Progress is progress, and anything's better than doing nothing. Show your GF some of the proof that TSM is working in the real world by having her read some of the stories here, in addition to the ones in the book. We're all behind you, and I'm sure she will be too.

I am trying to give me gf summaries of all what is happening and keeping her into the loop. Sometimes I think she just shows me her anger without even thinking what feelings could happen in myself because of that.

5 units today.

Interesting is today and yesterday that I feel very sober. It sounds stupid - and I would never do it - but I would think I can drive a car, as I feel so clear.
Somehow a little frustrating that I am not getting the "kick" in my brain right now. But that might be the way to success ...

Hang in there, the naltrexone is clearly impacting you and the chances of it working are great. Yes, an 80% rate with approximately 10% failing for failure to follow the proper regimen, so really more like a 90% success rate if you take the pill one hour before drinking. Also, progress on TSM is very individualistic and varies on so many factors, including how long you've been drinking, how much, among other variables, that the time for the cure is impossible to predict. But hang in there, people are seeing the cure here daily. You could be next and will be eventually if you stick to formula, naltrexone + drinking + PATIENCE = Cure.
I added the "patience" part but think it's an improved version of the formula.

The graphs in the book do not tell the whole story. They show trend lines. You might pront and show her some of the graphs from this board that show both data points and trend lines. Both are important: Data points show the wild, up-and-down ride, while trend lines show, well, the trend.

It won't be long now, craving.

development so far :

........Mon, 24.08. 5 units
........Tue, 25.08. 4 units
........Wed, 26.08. 5 units
........Thu, 27.08. 5 units
........Fri, 28.08. 5 units
........Sat, 29.08. 2.5 units


interesting thing happened today : I did not plan on drinking 2.5 units - actually I had already my glass filled up with 3 units - but I could not stand drinking this anymore, so I put it down the drain.

summary

Week 1
........Mon, 20.04. pre-SM AF
........Tue, 21.04. pre-SM AF
........Wed, 22.04. pre-SM AF
........Thu, 23.04. 5.7 units (SM Start 25mg Nal)
........Fri, 24.04. 6 units
........Sat, 25.04. AF
........Sun, 26.04. 5 units

........Total units : 16.7 units
........AF days : 4
........avg. units per drinking session : 5.6

Week 2
........Mon, 27.04. 5 units
........Tue, 28.04. AF
........Wed, 29.04. 5 units
........Thu, 30.04. AF
........Fri, 01.05. AF
........Sat, 02.05. AF
........Sun, 03.05. 1.5 units

........Total units : 11.5 units
........AF days : 4
........avg. units per drinking session : 3.8

Week 3
........Mon, 04.05. AF
........Tue, 05.05. 1.5 units (switch to 50mg Nal)
........Wed, 06.05. AF
........Thu, 07.05. 1.5 units
........Fri, 08.05. 1 unit
........Sat, 09.05. AF
........Sun, 10.05. AF

........Total units : 4 units
........AF days : 4
........avg. units per drinking session : 1.3

Week 4
........Mon, 11.05. 1 unit
........Tue, 12.05. AF
........Wed, 13.05. AF
........Thu, 14.05. 3 units
........Fri, 15.05. AF
........Sat, 16.05. AF
........Sun, 17.05. 5 units

........Total units : 9 units
........AF days : 4
........avg. units per drinking session : 3.0

Week 5
........Mon, 18.05. AF
........Tue, 19.05. 1 unit
........Wed, 20.05. 4 units
........Thu, 21.05. AF
........Fri, 22.05. 4 units
........Sat, 23.05. AF
........Sun, 24.05. AF

........Total units : 9 units
........AF days : 4
........avg. units per drinking session : 3.0

Week 6
........Mon, 25.05. 5 units
........Tue, 26.05. AF
........Wed, 27.05. AF
........Thu, 28.05. AF
........Fri, 29.05. 4 units
........Sat, 30.05. AF
........Sun, 31.05. 4 units

........Total units : 13 units
........AF days : 4
........avg. units per drinking session : 4.3

Week 7
........Mon, 01.06. AF
........Tue, 02.06. 5 units
........Wed, 03.06. 4 units
........Thu, 04.06. AF
........Fri, 05.06. 3 units
........Sat, 06.06. AF
........Sun, 07.06. AF


........Total units : 12 units
........AF days : 4
........avg. units per drinking session : 4.0

Week 8
........Mon, 08.06. 4 units
........Tue, 09.06. AF
........Wed, 10.06. 4 units
........Thu, 11.06. AF
........Fri, 12.06. 5 units
........Sat, 13.06. AF
........Sun, 14.06. 5 units


........Total units : 19 units
........AF days : 3
........avg. units per drinking session : 4.5

Week 9
........Mon, 15.06. AF
........Tue, 16.06. 5 units
........Wed, 17.06. 4 units
........Thu, 18.06. AF
........Fri, 19.06. 6 units
........Sat, 20.06. 7 units
........Sun, 21.06. AF


........Total units : 22 units
........AF days : 3
........avg. units per drinking session : 5.5

Week 10
........Mon, 22.06. 6 units
........Tue, 23.06. 5 units
........Wed, 24.06. 5 units
........Thu, 25.06. AF
........Fri, 26.06. AF
........Sat, 27.06. AF
........Sun, 28.06. 5 units


........Total units : 21 units
........AF days : 3
........avg. units per drinking session : 5.3

Week 11
........Mon, 29.06. 5 units
........Tue, 30.06. 6 units
........Wed, 01.07. AF
........Thu, 02.07. 4 units
........Fri, 03.07. 4 units
........Sat, 04.07. AF
........Sun, 05.07. 5 units


........Total units : 24 units
........AF days : 2
........avg. units per drinking session : 4.8

Week 12
........Mon, 06.07. AF
........Tue, 07.07. 6 units
........Wed, 08.07. 5 units
........Thu, 09.07. 5 units
........Fri, 10.07. AF
........Sat, 11.07. 3 units
........Sun, 12.07. AF


........Total units : 19 units
........AF days : 3
........avg. units per drinking session : 4.7


Week 13
........Mon, 13.07. AF
........Tue, 14.07. 6 units
........Wed, 15.07. 5 units
........Thu, 16.07. AF
........Fri, 17.07. 6 units
........Sat, 18.07. AF
........Sun, 19.07. AF


........Total units : 17 units
........AF days : 4
........avg. units per drinking session : 5.6


Week 14
........Mon, 20.07. 3 units
........Tue, 21.07. 4 units
........Wed, 22.07. 1.5 units
........Thu, 23.07. AF
........Fri, 24.07. 2.5 units
........Sat, 25.07. 3 units
........Sun, 26.07. 2 units


........Total units : 17 units
........AF days : 1
........avg. units per drinking session : 2.8


Week 15
........Mon, 27.07. 6 units
........Tue, 28.07. AF
........Wed, 29.07. 3 units
........Thu, 30.07. 3 units
........Fri, 31.07. 2 units
........Sat, 01.08. 4 units
........Sun, 02.08. 4 units


........Total units : 22 units
........AF days : 1
........avg. units per drinking session : 3.6


Week 16
........Mon, 03.08. 4.5 units
........Tue, 04.08. 3 units
........Wed, 05.08. 3 units
........Thu, 06.08. 4 units
........Fri, 07.08. 5 units
........Sat, 08.08. 4 units
........Sun, 09.08. 4.5 units


........Total units : 28 units
........AF days : 0
........avg. units per drinking session : 4.0


Week 17
........Mon, 10.08. 3 units
........Tue, 11.08. 4 units
........Wed, 12.08. 4 units
........Thu, 13.08. 5 units
........Fri, 14.08. 1 unit
........Sat, 15.08. 1 unit
........Sun, 16.08. 4 units


........Total units : 22 units
........AF days : 0
........avg. units per drinking session : 3.1


Week 18
........Mon, 17.08. 5 units
........Tue, 18.08. 5 units
........Wed, 19.08. 4 units
........Thu, 20.08. 5 units
........Fri, 21.08. 3 units
........Sat, 22.08. AF
........Sun, 23.08. 5 units


........Total units : 27 units
........AF days : 1
........avg. units per drinking session : 4.5


Week 19
........Mon, 24.08. 5 units
........Tue, 25.08. 4 units
........Wed, 26.08. 5 units
........Thu, 27.08. 5 units
........Fri, 28.08. 5 units
........Sat, 29.08. 2.5 units
........Sun, 30.08. 3 units


........Total units : 29.5 units
........AF days : 0
........avg. units per drinking session : 4.2




As already announced as of today I will start with 75mg - I waited for the end of the week to have a valid weekly comparison.

Fingers crossed for you, craving. I bumped up my dose the beginning of August, and it helped me. At first, I was concerned that it was another Nal "honeymoon" period, because it felt similar to when I first started Nal. Turns out it wasn't! I'm so grateful that I learned about Naltrexone, bought the book, and gave it a try.

Lenore, what dose of Nal are you taking?

The first evening I increased to 100 mg, then dropped down to 75mg for the rest of the month. I never had more than two glasses of wine in a evening after the increase. Last week I was mostly AL free. The desire to drink is gone. Maybe I should say the cravings are gone. I can enjoy a glass of wine and not want the whole bottle.