I remember reading Allen Carr's "Easy Way to Stop Drinking" about 5 years ago. It was before I really started to do a bit of reading on addiction and how it works but what I can remember taking from it was when he says about.. When you remember tasting alcohol for the first time be it beer or what ever. It is absolutely vile and it takes quite a while to acquire a taste for it. I can remember agreeing with this 100%. You have to teach your brain to want it and after a while it thinks you need it and thats when the mind games begins with that little voice in your head

Thank you Yutiro and Dab for your posts. They are appreciated.

Just an update...The evening of my Nalover, I had the first AF day in months...Really no tough choice as I could not fathom taking a Nal and drinking that night. The next day I started marriage counseling with my husband which was extremely tough and painful as I came to realize how hard all my drinking related choices have been on my husband. So that evening I had a second AF. We then went camping for 2 days and I purposely didn't bring any alcohol....So now am at 4 days AF. Don't think I've done that since I was pregnant.

Don't know how many days I can go. Don't think I can aspire to be Help237...but will keep trying.

Hope this has been a good weekend for many of you out there.

That was a very beautiful reply/update....thanks.

Of course you want to be totally free from the demon-drink. And seeing the effect your drinking has had on your husband is a positive RESULT of the Naltrexone working! You are coming out of the fog, seeing, thinking more clearly. But the beauty of the Nal is that you can still drink and let the extinction process work, do its magic. So, you can RELAX, as long as you are taking the Nal an hour or more before you drink. If, after a few months the dosage you are taking isn't working, simply talk to your doctor about increasing it....trust me, this drug does work. Hospitals have used it for years for those over-dosing on Ophiod-enhancing drugs, like Heroin. The injectable version there is called "Nalexone", and it instantly brings back people from the brink of an over-dose. Look it up. In our situation, the pill version, Naltrexone, blocks the Endorphins from giving us the alcohol reward. We still feel the effects of the booze, but down deep our brain does not get the, "I wanna do this again" reward and boost. We cannot feel it happening, but it does, in time.

Keep on keeping on. You are on the right road and only a very short time from experiencing it!

Take care.

Thank you everyone who has given me encouraging words. I've been so disappointed in myself the past several months and the kind words on this forum (plus reading others' stories) has helped keep me on this side of sanity.

Managed another AF day so am at 5...consuming only 5.5 units this week (the least I've consumed in several years). Was a tough struggle last night and that little voice inside was telling me to just have one drink. Managed not to tho....Took 5 mg Baclofen (probably not enough to make any difference) and tried to keep busy, going to bed at 9:30.

My marriage counselor recommended "Over the Influence: Harm Reduction Guide" so I put a hold on it at the library. Apparently it does not promote AA but offers a method for seeking control and moderation. Will let folks know what I think of it when I read it.

Day 6 AF. Not easy tho. Probably the toughest day yet. Wanted a drink from mid-afternoon on. Felt cranky. Took 10 mg Baclofen at dinner time and that seemed to help. Plus was busy finishing off a project in the evening. Relieved to go to bed w/ a sleeping pill knowing I survived another day.

Will be going out to dinner Friday (in 2 days) and so now am wondering if I have a glass of wine or not (w/ Nal)? Or do I keep this abstinence thing going?

Wow. Good work!!!

I'd say don't plan to have the wine, but take the Nal beforehand just in case that you do. Don't forget that the Nal works on craving issues as well. So, every time you have a drink--having taken the Nal beforehand--you are setting in motion the whole "extinction" process that Nal is specifically designed to do.

I'm going to try to have a dry day myself today....went overboard the last three nights.

Take care.

Day 7 AF. Dab, I'm going to try to take your advice and go into Friday's restaurant dinner with the intention of not having a glass of wine. I don't feel I'm ready and don't trust myself that I can have a glass of wine and then go another several days AF....I may take the Nal at any rate or at least some Baclofen to curb the cravings.

Am still feeling odd not drinking. It's not feeling normal. Also I'm hungry all the time. Must be because I'm not getting the extra 300-500 calories in alcohol a day.

For me, once I got serious about giving up this thing called alcoholism, an extended period of complete abstinence was a very good thing. I went five months with zero AL, and during that time put a lot of effort into getting my head on straight. I at least began to get it through my thick skull that I could postpone my troubles with booze, but not solve them; for the latter I had to really focus on what I was trying to drink away, and why I felt that was the only solution, and whether there was perhaps some other way to handle those overwhelming emotions. So I would encourage you to rack up as many AFs as you can, and use the time to do the head work that, for me, is the other half of TSM. But if at any point it becomes too much of a white-knuckler, fall back on NAL+AL for a bit. Beats the heck out of going off on a toot.

Ellpee, thank for your post and words to think about.

Tonight is day 8 AF. I don't really have much of a craving but I'm cranky...and a bit bored...and a bit depressed. I always seem to be depressed except when I'm traveling or in a different environment. It's not deep incapacitating depression but just a dull depression that's often "there".

Part of my evening drinking, I think, has been that it's the highlight of the day. I come home, help the kids with their homework, clean up, clean up some more, realize there's more to clean up but give up, and that's it. I rarely go out and only have few friends locally...(but have kept up w/ many who live in other places where I used to live...thank goodness for facebook). I can't even watch tv b/c my husband has programmed it such that it doesn't work past 8pm and I need to get the kids organized for school and that won't work if they are distracted by the tv. Hmmm, getting some insight here. The fact that I've "got the gene" makes the progression to alcoholic that much quicker. And good times, I've got marriage counseling tomorrow. Guess I'll just go to bed now.

Day 9 AF. Went to dinner at a nice restaurant last night. Drank Perrier w/ lime which was a reasonable substitute for the wine. Everyone around me of course was drinking very fine wines but I didn't seem to mind that much. Odd feeling to leave the restaurant completely alert and sober.