well I still drink almost every day (none m-th because of school) just not as much and the main difference ive noticed besides me not wanting 'more more more' is the fact that days when i have classes/studying anything like that to do if the idea of drinking comes up (and it does because im in the habit of daily drinking) I can simply tell myself 'nope not today school'

no mental monkey on my back comes back to overide that logic

I think this is the most important topic for those of us trying to get sober...thanks for the thread

Here i am in the middle of the night and should I have another...its 2 AM, I awoke from a nap,...passed out...virtually sober because I drink less thanks to Nal...yet I'd rather post my thoughts....We need therapy post sober...I think its like PTSD. We're soldiers coming back from war and if we have no one to talk to and figure it out,...we'd be like a vet with no one to talk to,....that's why i think this forum is more than just an informative...its a place where we can heal...but I still think there is more we need beyond this...a place like AA...It's so very powerful to come out of a meeting....I think that would be the coup d'etat ...a place where we could go to celebrate and share....just getting sober with a pill is not enough in my opinion.

Disclosure,..1st week,..drank basically normal...2nite,..less,..fell out at 11 PM woke up at 1.30 AM very sober and am not jonesing....nal + drinking =cure

Bump

Hey Jim thanks for bumping this topic. I've been having the same questions pop into my head. I feel very little pleasure from drinking, and no buzz, and seem to have achieved the Cure promised through TSM, however.....

I'm still reaching for the wine in the same way I have in the past.

So of course this has to be something other than addiction in the real sense (at least the way Dr. Sinclair describes it). I'm not sure 'habit' is the answer either. I think it's that I've learned to tame my anxiety, unhappiness, and depression by drinking to soothe myself. Most of us drink for that reason.

So along comes Sinclair, we all start taking naltrexone, and many of us get 'cured' - but the part that's hard to figure out is that many of us also continue to reach out for the soother.

I'm now reading a book by Dr. Maxie Maultsby called Stay Sober and Straight...How to Prevent Addiction Relapse with the Rational Self-Help Treatment Method. His take is that it's irrational to reach for alcohol time after time to relieve pressure from whatever is making us unhappy - simply because it's the wrong tool to use - do this often enough and bingo you're addicted. He's a Cognitive Therapy type and he teaches folks to change their thinking to change their emotions - and therefore stop the need to fix things with drinking. It's got a lot of stuff in it that most of us know, however, I think it's helping me already.

I'd recommend it. I think this type of therapy is necessary for many of us during and after our TSM experience. At least that's what I'm finding. I know Sinclair says his rats didn't need therapy, just naltrexone, but I know I'm more complicated than that and I suspect most of us are!!

Just from a quick initial read of this book I can identify things that come up at "drinking time" that make me anxious and so reach for a drink. I feel anxiety because I have been thinking in an irrational way. Once I can switch to rational thinking I no longer have the feeling of anxiety and so don't need to drink. For three nights now I've been able to change my feelings by challenging my thinking. And I've not needed to reach for the wine. Of course I never could have even contemplated doing this kind of thing if I had not gone through the Sinclair Method - I'm totally convinced that now that I'm 'cured' I can become a rational thinker and complete the process.

Hope this stimulates more current discussion and maybe some more book/therapy recommendations.

BGH

Totally agree with you on the rational vs irrational thought process. Once cured I thought ok Im fairly happy now what and who the hell am I now? That thought faded and I said bullshit I know who I am and I needed to put a plan together to get back to a healthy pattern of living mentally and physically. I actually wrote down a bunch of my old habits prior to going off the rails with booze, what I wanted to acheive, and how I was going to get there. I started with all the basics (dont want to sound like a child but it's true) eating right, exercise, cleaning my house daily, wash, more work ( I am self employed), getting back into old hobbies - I have way too many to list, training for my dog, hang with friends again etc. All the little trivial things in life that I said to hell with and reached for the bottle and sank deeper in the hole called hell.

Just basic healthy living that the years of booze destroyed or I let destroy. As I did these things slowly but surely my rational thought process began to return. It wasnt exactly easy at first but it wasnt exactly hard either. I felt weird ..kinda like oh wow so this living again. I definitly know what you mean by reaching for the bottle for a little bit of "soothing" big time. Only I soothed myself way too much and almost destroyed myself in the process. In the past before drinking like a madman I always had a rule...when the **** hits the fan Never ever drink it will only make it worse. That ruled changed to if anything goes bad have a drink. I have come full circle to drinking is not an option..it will make the situation worse

I'll get the book...am hoping I will be in that "Hmmm, what do I do now" situation before too long.

bump yet one more time

There is no difference between an addiction and a habit. At least no more than the difference between a hill and a mountain. There is no boundary, it's all continuum and the only difference is the one of degree.

Clearly there are many factors that combine to cause cravings. Nal takes care of some of them (for some of us) but I think it is naive to hope that it would take care of all of them. One day we might have all the drugs for every possible impulse and even be able to mix and match them according to the particular person and situation (scary, huh?). Until then, there are established ways of dealing with conditioned responses (a.k.a. habits). Say, one has a habit of drinking while watching TV or browsing internet. The common approaches are:

- Extinguishing. Break the linkage between drinking and TV. Decide that drinking is OK but not in front of TV. Enforce it.
- Counterconditioning. Associate TV with something else. Something that you really like. Ice cream perhaps?

If it works for dogs, there is no reason why it won't work for humans