I'm heading into week 6 and not seeing much progress yet. My numbers are slightly down for the week. It seems that I am able to stop at 3 units one night and then the next I'll have 8. On those nights, I can sense myself chasing that relaxed, good feeling I used to get, but it never comes. I still have not been able to have any AF days - as I mentioned before, it's just too hard when my husband comes home and has a few not to join him. Oh well. Just overall frustrated again this week. I'd like to start seeing some progress. Last night I had 8 units and this morning I definitely have some nausea, but the rest of the side effects seem to have abated.

Another bad thing - I've switched from wine to vodka or sometimes beer. The wine still tastes bad to me. Interestingly, the nights when I had fewer units, I was trying to drink wine, but it just tasted too sickly sweet and I didn't want it. With nothing else in the house, I was able to just stop. But now I'm keeping vodka in the house Sigh.

As Nick has told me, that's why we spike sometimes...we keep hitting the paddle expecting the food. the paddle is alcohol, the food is the adrenaline rush. We aren't getting that anymore, hence the extinction happens over time as our brain figures out it is not getting teh reward. This makes PERFECT sense to me. Best, Jim

Been off the board for a bit. I have been continuing taking my Nal, but have had 2 instances where I did not take it and drank anyway. I am super stressed out right now and I think I just wanted some of that relief that alcohol used to give me. Even though I didn't take the Nal, I still didn't get any good relaxed feelings. My hunch is that the Nal stays blocking those receptors for longer than you might suppose. At 2 months, I was expecting to feel more of a shift. I'm also concerned about the cost of staying on Nal right now. If I stay at 50 mgs, I have just enough to last me a little over a month. My husband and I are trying to save our house from foreclosure and it feels like every penny has to go towards that. Ridiculous alcoholic logic, I know, because it doesn't stop me from buying alcohol which is what I should be doing. I'm thinking of going back down to 25 just to make the Nal last longer. My fear is that it will make this process drag out even longer. Don't know quite where to go with this, just trying to stay somewhat motivated.