Nadine, you may want to hold off on the full dose till you can be home the next day, just in case. You may be fine with it, but now you're heading into a social drinking situation (which is a problem for many, as drinking often escalates). My suggestion would be to stick with the 25 for a bit more and concentrate on delay/dilution/distraction techniques to keep your rate of drinking slower, as people get caught up in the moment and kind of forget themselves. The conscious aspect is an important part of TSM, as the conscious part of the brain is so used to folding and letting the booze-loving "Lizard Brain" (the addicted part of the brain) have it's way.

Try visualizing how the night is going to go, what it's going to look like to set your pace, what you're going to drink in between glasses of wine (etc). Visualize looking at the bottle when it's time for a refill and deciding "that's enough for now...". That in itself can be a real confidence builder.

25 mg at 3 pm, first beer at 4pm, went to bed at midnight and had a total of 6 beers. This is an absolute winner for me. I am so amazed. I feel like I have a choice again. More than happy!!

Excellent, Nadine! Nal on!

Love hearing about your new beginning Nadine. Keep it up and enjoy the journey in reshaping your relationship with alcohol. It may go up and down and the next 8 months to a year will be your story. I hope you stick with it and find your version of success.

My tips:
Drink mindfully
Tell a few select people you trust and get their support.
Read This Naked Mind, a book that will make the case against alcohol.
Be easy on yourself. Rewiring the brain's cravings is real personal change. There will be other changes that may happen too like how you spend your time (if/when you stop drinking so much), relationships, and other life's perspectives. For me it opened me up a lot, but also led to many unanswered questions about a more sober lifestyle.

Good luck and keep posting.

I suspect the lurker to responder rate on this forum is very high. So you are likely to have many many readers of your story who never chime in...

Nal on!

Thank you for the response, still doing pretty good on half the dose...

Bueno, keep us filled in when you get a chance!

so far so good joesixpack. half the dose, half the booze... had a sixpack yesterday, which would have been normally at least 10 beers, if not 12. i can stop. still looking forward to the beer though. I am a tad daunted by the life long commitment thing. like having to take nal forever. but its week two. so just lets wait and see. just had my dose again for NYE. See what tonight brings... wishing you a happy new year and thank you for being there for me. XX

Good work, Nadine. Happy New Year to you too, it sounds like you're going to be sending the booze beast packing in 2017!

Hi Nadine, having been from 25 mg up to 50 mg - I can tell you that (at least for me) the jump was not near as bad as the starting. I am glad I went to the 50 mg because I don't feel any differently side-effect-wise, but I do feel even more like the alcohol is not that interesting.

Lots of habits I need to break, but the 'pull' is not there (at least not overwhelmingly). I know there is a honeymoon phase so I am not jumping in and saying I am on the way to cured - but I DO absolutely believe the science. And in that case, it is all about following the rules and getting in the time.

Let's kick this monster our of our heads/bodies in 2017...! (for me the goal is to enjoy a glass or 2 of something, once in a while. period. - so let's see if I can get there by end of 2017)

Happy New Year!
...kay

Hi Kay, thanks. thats excellent feedback. i have been on 25 now for about 12 days and even though I had excellent success, I do still feel some pull... Not as strong and I can resist it, but there is still keen interest in alcohol, especially when we are talking red wine. NYE I drank 9 375mls Beers and some gin and tonic, but that was over 9 hours, alas I have memories of everything and brought myself to bed. I was thinking this morning that it is time to ramp it up and go the 50 mg. I will let you know how I am going... My goals are similar to yours. a couple of glasses here and there. And no more blackouts... Ever. xx