Hi Everyone - I've been lurking around MWO for over a year and found this website. I've worked my way up to a bottle of red wine a day for the past several years and have hated the fact that I think I cannot live without it. I decided in mid-Nov. to see if I could stop, which I did for about 10 days, then drank one night, and couple of days AF, then another bottle, then AF 2-3 days and finally the Nal arrived. I went to a Christmas party and took 25 mg. with a little food, waited an hour and then proceeded to drink 2 glasses of eggnog (would have preferred wine), but thought the eggnog would be less tempting (it was very good and strong). I felt a little spacey and got a little sleepy, but it wore off and then I continued the rest of the night to drink club soda. I didn't sleep all that well and the next day felt somehow weird. I had two glasses of wine last night with no Nal (bad girl), but I didn't want anymore. I'm still going to try to be AF most days and only use the Nal when I know I want to have more than 2 of anything. Has anyone tried it this way? I really want the freedom of not being addicted, but would like to have the privilege of a social drink or two.

How do you know that you are going to stop at one or two?

Bob

PS Welcome! Good to have you here.

Hi Bob: Thanks! I'm assuming since I only wanted two with the Nal, that would be my norm? Who knows? But I think 2 of anything would be a good goal to shoot for, or even nothing would be better. I'd really like to be in a place where I just didn't care if I drank or not.

Welcome.

I think the addiction process begins with endorphins released beginning with the first drink, so only taking Nal if you plan to have more than two does not align with the TSM mechanism of extinction. The way I understand it, TSM has almost nothing to do with your active, conscious thoughts or intentions, but instead 'rewires' the chemical responses in your brain in response to the arrival of alcohol in your system. Over time, that feeds back in a beneficial way into your conscious perceptions of craving (that is, they are reduced or eliminated).

However, I think you can be successful if you modify your approach only slightly, so that you are AF as often as you care to be, but if you plan to drink AT ALL, you take your Nal one hour ahead of time. (That means if you 'forget' you are going to drink, you take your Nal and STALL for an hour before drinking.) The weird thing about TSM is that you are only "unlearning" alcoholism when you actually drink, but ONLY if you are drinking WITH Nal in your system. Lots of AF days may stretch out the time period over which your brain unlearns its addiction, but over time, if you are CONSISTENT about always taking Nal before any drinking, it should happen.

As a practical matter, regardless of how poorly I understand or describe the actual process, my goal was probably similar to yours. I love wine but wanted to be able to stop after two, and to have drinking it stop being the focus of my entire life. I was incapable of doing so. After 22 weeks on TSM, it is now trivial to do so. I have my two glasses (or one, or none) and move on to enjoy other aspects of my evening and my life.

Hi Plain Vanilla: Thanks so much for your input. I really appreciate other's experiences and opinions. I'm meeting some girlfriends this week to go to the wine country for a lunch and then wine tasting and I'll definitely take the Nal before. I'm a little nervous about taking it as I've only used it once actually preferring to have AF days. I just didn't like the spacey and sleepy feelings I had. Guess those are better than being addicted. I'll post my results.

Welcome BC.

The method will absolutely NOT WORK for you if you do not take naltrexone on the days you only have one or two. Every time you drink without naltrexone, you are making positive (subconscious) associations between your endorphin rush that occurs from alcohol and whatever you are doing at that time. The only way to extinguish this association is by drinking, but doing so on naltrexone, and blocking the endorphin rush. PV is entirely correct: this all happens on a subconscious level. There is only ONE RULE with TSM: NEVER DRINK OFF OF NALTREXONE. Every time you drink without naltrexone, you are increasing your addiction, so DO NOT DO IT!

The unpleasant side effects you cite are TEMPORARY. They go away almost immediately -- one week, two at most -- for almost all of us, and they will for you too. Stick with the formula religiously for at least a few weeks before drawing any conclusions about side effects because THEY GO AWAY.

Welcome to the board.

My best,

Nick