I would consider myself a dyed-in-the-wool alcoholic. I've been in trouble from a very young age but want to treat my addiction and welcome a treatment!! I wonder if TSM isn't best suited for the alcoholic "lite" because the folks who seem to have easy success and benefit from TSM are in the early or lite stages of alcoholism.

Forgive my skepticism, but almost all my AA sponsors had histories that paled in comparison to my own. I started to wonder if only the alcoholic "lites" could benefit from what AA had to offer. I am a 42 year old woman with a 24 year heavy duty history of destructive drinking!! I've tried to abstain for most of those years but I've had trouble BTDT

How so "not true" BTDT. I am 58 I have a history of about roughly 20-25-maybe 30yrs under my belt. Only recently, has my body told me to "knock it off!" I slowed down on my own because I am older now & feel my body crying for relief. Call it naure if you will. However I still have my binge days. I wish I had known this treatment 30yrs ago. (Oh, How I wish). But that's done & over with. I am being helped a great deal. Noticing lots of "Baby Steps" but they are adding up now. Don't get discouraged. Keep on keeping on til your' fingers bleed, so to speak. It's a painful prosess I give you that. But I am here to tell you to CHIN UP my Dear, we are all in the same boat & there isn't much we haven't see. Try not to fret. It will come. I want to be completely free from this demon who I let destroy part of my life. I no longer need it, for me, at this poit I think I do it out of habit & triggers like my surroundings. You are doing good. Talk to me. Anytime. I will listen.
Hugs,
JANE

Thanks Jane.

I guess I'm prone to a bit of self pity. I guess I find it hard to watch the folks with less dangerous problems find relief while I continue to struggle. Not that I, in any way, don't want them to have success. Any success against this disease is a victory!! I just wonder if I will too. Your honest and compassionate posts keep me going - so thanks!!! Truth is I am doing better. The progress is slow but I have a long way to go. I no longer worry that this disease will kill me which is a step in the right direction.

My doc also put me on 100 mg which has made it harder for me to choke down the bit that I do drink. I consider this successful and will be happy when I can stop fighting what my body wants. I guess it is hard to undo the years of desperately wanting to drink and not being able to. This is the by-product of so many years of telling myself NO in AA. I do find that it lacks the allure that it once had. I am glad

Thank you. You are so helpful to this board. BTDT

BTDT, I agree with Jane. An alcoholic is an alcoholic. There is no "lite, medium, and heavy," when it comes to alcoholism. Reading through the TSM board I realize that I don't drink (in volume) nearly as much as some here. But so what? It's just because my body can't handle that much alcohol. My problem isn't necessarily how much I drink as much as how I can't control how much I drink.

-Chance

BTDT, I definitely care about your progress. Sometimes I may not post responses because I don't have time or I may not have anything useful to add, but I always read your posts with interest. Don't lose hope. We definitely care about you.

DITTO!!!

Just read posts by Crown86 (I think it's 86!) and you'll read about a falling-down drunk who drank an amazing amount of booze and had serious serious problems - but has had wonderful success. I'm one of those who don't drink very much but others here are very right when they say it's not totally the volume that's important, it's the control. I've got 40 years under my belt too but was never able to handle large quantities of booze - I'd black out way before quantities got big - but the result was just as bad!!

So as others have said be patient and read some of the really early posts for a real variety of styles, quantities, and personalities.

BTDT, Tambo took the words out of my mouth. We all care about you. Hang in there. You are not alone.

-Chance

Chance, Tambo, BGH,

Thank you for your support. I guess I have a hard time dealing with my addiction especially watching the folks who don't have as aggressive a problem. I wish it were easier for me to put the drink aside after the first one or two but that is not where I am... BTDT

BTDT, it is no use really to compare oneself with others. One thing I have had confirmed by reading this forum is that there are so many different types of drinkers and drinking problems.

On the other hand, TSM seems to work for the majority of people to at the very least help them cut back and have greater control of their drinking. You are still in the very early stages. It's way too early to draw any conclusions.

The study cited in Eskapa's book was for drinkers that averaged only 37 units per week. At about the 4 month mark they were only down a little more than 50% from pre-tsm levels. For those of us that drank a lot more than that (myself included) there is no reason to suspect the process to proceed as fast. In fact, it took those 37 unit per week drinkers about 9 months to really cut down their drinking to about 75% of what they were drinking pre-TSM. No matter what the result, I am prepared to give this method a good year and I hope you will too. It's still early days. As some of us discussed in Joe's thread, the use of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy may be a useful adjunct to TSM. You may want to look into that if you are inclined.

Good luck and I will be watching your progress with great interest.

Merlot