.

Thanks for the replies guys, I'll keep the post up. My drinking has seriously gotten ridiculous. Was pretty bad again last- drank 2/3 bottle of whisky on my own in my room watching Celebrity Rehab continuously. I've never done that before- I've never even drank whisky straight before. I will stick to the formula, but I just hope that in the meantime I don't lose everything. Will hopefully go Al-free tonight.

i know how you feel. I drank 8 units last night. Way too many. I feel ok this AM at work, but damn. i want extinction. I've been at this like 8 months. I have to realize though that last night I would've drunk way more than 8 units. Got a new roommate. I need to lay down some laws and that may have something to do with it as well.

Should i even keep going, or should I try something else at this point? TSM has reduced my intake by half but I need it to go further. and I put a little effort in too but usually only manage one AF a week

hope i;m not off topic here, but i wanted to respond to joe. i ran across this post last night from may 15 09 by going4more. (sorry couldn't figure out how to attach a link. it is in the thread most common experiences and feelings, page 6)

" A member called ashl combined Naltrexone w/lower doses of baclofen, as he suffered serious anxiety. He reported great success with alcohol reduction as soon as he started using baclofen. Here's the thread: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=315&hilit=baclofen+naltrexone. I believe ART is also on a similar regimen."

anyway my thought is why not try low dose bac along with nal. it may give you a further decrease in units, and my thought is that the real advantage to this is that you get to break old habits and form new ones while you are giving tsm additional time. you also get the added health benefit of fewer units. just a thought. this may be something for zero_nine to consider too as way to get the units down.

if i'm not seeing a bigger reduction in a few months i think i will try this before doing anything more drastic.

how is the dog? much better i hope
path

I feel the same way. I wonder if there are alcoholics and then there are ALCOHOLICS. I've never had a period of my life where i could drink normally. I swear every AA sponsor I've had was a much lighter drinking than I was. They became alcoholic after many years of normal drinking. This is something I could never relate to. I've been an ALKIE since my first drink. I wonder if TSM works better for the not alcoholic but heavy drinking crowd but doesn't work as well for the totally ALCOHOLIC crowd like I am. These are my own personal doubts.

If any old timers in the heavy duty category can chime in... I sure would appreciate it. Take care, BTDT

btdt,
i think the book "seven weeks to sobriety" which is mostly a nutritional approach to al addiction talks about different types of alcoholics. some have an allergy to alcohol, they tend to not handle even small amounts of alcohol well from the git-go, but crave immediately nonetheless. others are alcoholic because al helps their brain chemistry, neurotransmitters, and others are more sugar addicted and al is an excellent sugar delivery method. i haven't read it in a long time, so i may not be completely accurate here. but you get the idea. i don't think you are off base in wondering. once again, don't you wish someone would have done more research by now and developed treatment options?????
path

zero9

I wouldn't beat yourself up too bad..booze does enough of that for you. I know for me as long as I'm not blacking out, causing relationship problems, causing myself health problems, no alcohol induced depression...I could care less about the "holy grail" called sobriety aa BS to me. Now that being said I barley drink today and never get drunk anymore or even buzzed up..but on an occasion have a couple beers. I know without naltrexone I really beleive this would not have been possible for myself...no way, I was too far in the wrong direction to "pull out" with will power, AA, god, whatever and didn't care. TSM gave me a little something to start caring about myself again.

I know your frustration and anger..like firebird said part of the game. Hang in there my friend

Thanks for the replies again. I would love to resond to each of them individually because they deserve it, but I'm too hungover! I popped a Nal again tonight, quite fancied a drink of whisky again- But an hour later and really don't feel like it. However, I'm going to choke a few down so that I don't waste the pill. Its good that my cravings are way down. I'm beginning to take this very seriously, watching "celebrity rehab" has shown me how bad it can get- its entertaining and worth watching.

The recovery program is based on 12 steps completely. Its good to see the persepective of the Rehab industry and the view of the medical profession. I do think that they genuinly do care and I can totally see why they would be skeptical of an addict wanted to try an approach like TSM. I mean the big appealing factor for everyone is that we get to continue drinking during the treatment. Thats the addict talking in us,, but anyway. Worth watching.

Back to this gross whisky. WIll have a couple of units just to aid the TSM, then hit the bed.

Last night I watched an episode of Intervention about a guy named Chris who drank a litre or more of vodka every day. They did the intervention thing, sent him to rehab for 3 months, everything is cool. I'm saying to myself, this isn't going to work on this guy, he's just too far gone. Sure enough, he "relapsed several times" after returning home and finally "took his own life." Jeez!

Yeah, when things are that far gone I doubt that an intervention would work. With that much vodka you're talking brain damage- I can't imagine anything would work really- although intramuscular Nal should be tried, if his liver could cope with it.