Experience with Naltrexone

[startingover]

Experience with Naltrexone

Marbs, I know it is early days, but it sounds like progress for you doesnt it?
You are right about the taste of alcohol though, it is foul!
I am so pleased for you!

[bloggy]

Experience with Naltrexone

Yes Starts, this is a very interesting process for me- it seems to be working for me exactly as Dr. Sinclair describes- I am just praying it carries on that way.

[hippie37]

Experience with Naltrexone

Hi Marbs just thought I'd catch up with your progress. Upon first reading your posts my immediate reaction was: "Well! if one has no effect then why don't you just buy more beer until it does have some effect?". Then I read this line: but thankfully with Naltrexone the urge to drink excessively just isn't there. This made me feel a whole lot more comfortable with this particular method you're trying. I actually think this a really good psychological way of re-training your brain as to what it sees as 'rewards'. Haven't watched the podcast yet Marb but I've got plenty of time on my hands today so will do so today at some point. Sounds like you know what your doing anyway and have researched this well. Good for you. Wishing you every success with this.

Love and Happiness
Hippie
xx

[gyco]

Experience with Naltrexone

hi marbs,im very happy for you.maybe you found the fountain of youth,ahha,i hopeit keeps working for you,keep posting ,this could be good research for me if i fall into,a deprived state again,your story o so sounds like me in the past,everyone has a different way of doing things,if it works for you and there are no long term affects from the meds,the power to you,gyco

[hippie37]

Experience with Naltrexone

AA rats!! marbs LMAO!! I know the podcast is serious but that just really made me laugh!

[bloggy]

Experience with Naltrexone

hippie37;431883 wrote: Hi Marbs just thought I'd catch up with your progress. Upon first reading your posts my immediate reaction was: "Well! if one has no effect then why don't you just buy more beer until it does have some effect?". Then I read this line: but thankfully with Naltrexone the urge to drink excessively just isn't there. This made me feel a whole lot more comfortable with this particular method you're trying. I actually think this a really good psychological way of re-training your brain as to what it sees as 'rewards'. Haven't watched the podcast yet Marb but I've got plenty of time on my hands today so will do so today at some point. Sounds like you know what your doing anyway and have researched this well. Good for you. Wishing you every success with this.

Love and Happiness
Hippie
xx

That is exactly what I thought- a professional alc like me will just carry on- but you don't- it's just like drinking lemonade I guess- one pint is nice, two is probably pushing it a bit, and three well- you just don't want it

[bloggy]

Experience with Naltrexone

Gyco;431886 wrote: hi marbs,im very happy for you.maybe you found the fountain of youth,ahha,i hopeit keeps working for you,keep posting ,this could be good research for me if i fall into,a deprived state again,your story o so sounds like me in the past,everyone has a different way of doing things,if it works for you and there are no long term affects from the meds,the power to you,gyco

Gyco, keep your fingers crossed for me, I already feel much better- just so hoping it will go on

[bloggy]

Experience with Naltrexone

hippie37;431888 wrote: AA rats!! marbs LMAO!! I know the podcast is serious but that just really made me laugh!

Yes I was laughing at that bit too :H

[bloggy]

Experience with Naltrexone

Just a quickie today as we are going to Barcelona

Yesterday was quite stressful, I went to a hospital an hours' drive away to see a friend who is dying- we do not know how long he has got- it could be a week or two, he might make a couple of months at the most. His death will not be short and quick he has cirrhosis of the liver, plus a 16cm tumor on the liver to boot.
He is 68- his 48 year old wife died of alcohol related illness 18 months ago.

I went with a very good friend and the dying man's sister. After saying Hello, my friend and I went down to the bar to get out of the way while the sister sorted out his private bits- they very much leave all that to the family here in Spain.

I did not drink- I fancied one, hospitals and illness are a very big trigger for me, but my friend was driving so I didn't order one as he couldn't. We went back upstairs and the craving came on very strong- I made an excuse and went back down to the bar- it was a bit before 4pm and I took 25mg of Naltrexone on the way down. I ordered a beer but it really did nothing though.

Later at about 6pm after we got back I had 2 more- again they did nothing- the third one was hard to finish.

I reckon another week of this and I wont be ordering them anymore. They are doing nothing for me and the taste is quite foul. The trick of course is to keep taking the Naltrexone- I think for somebody who had not gone as low as I there might be a temptation not to take it occasionally.

I just keep thinking how bad I have been, all the wasted days barely able to get up, how this can and will kill me, and take it with an enormous sense of gratitude!

[bloggy]

Experience with Naltrexone

I will not continue to update daily as it will make for boring reading!

Yesterday was the same as the other days- 2 beers and no desire for more. Infact after the second one I felt a bit sick, and completely lost my appetite, which cheered my BF up as he went for a Kentucky- somewhere he can't go if I am eating too (Vegetarian).

This morning I am still feeling quite queasy- I do hope it is not the tablets- my usual reaction to any medication is it makes me sick- I have been surprised and pleased it hasn't happened with the Naltrexone.

Hopefully it is just a bug or something- I will know later when I take the pill.

[startingover]

Experience with Naltrexone

Marbs, overall it really sounds like this is working for you.....that makes me VERY happy. I am hoping that you just have a bug and the tablets aren't disagreeing with you.

To get through what you went through yesterday at the hospital with minimul alcohol is a great thing. I am proud of you.

[MyRedWhine]

Experience with Naltrexone

hey i'm doing the sinclair method too, day #2. i skipped the low dose and went straight for the 50 mg day #1 and day #2. i've noticed a MARKED difference in my drinking habits. it's bizarre, the whole point of the treatment is that you have to keep drinking for it to work. but last night i had to remind myself to pour a glass at my usual time, and then i kept having to remind myself to take sips from it. after two glasses of wine, however, i was WAY tired and sort of uninterested in everything other than some low-brow scandalous book i was reading. i was sort of blah. i typically enjoy cooking and eating, but as soon as i took the naltrexone and had about a half-glass of wine i couldn't wait for the soup to be done, then didn't feel much like eating it, even though i was hungry. i've definitely noticed a weird appetite change--it's not that i'm not hungry, i just don't care enough to eat. a couple of weird side effects. when i take it, i crave pizza (although again, not enough to go get any). what's that! another, less pleasant one, is that i've thrown up both mornings AFTER taking the pill. so i took one saturday afternoon, drank, and woke up sunday at 5 a.m. to drink some water--then threw it up. there was literally nothing in my stomach except water, so i'm not sure why i would have thrown up. i thought i had caught something so i lay around sunday and didn't drink (didn't take naltrexone, didn't even care for a drink). monday morning, no problem. so monday night i took my pill around 6 p.m., had 2 glasses of wine, went to bed. now, normally, after going a whole day without, i would have gone a little nuts. but i didn't. anyway, woke up at 6:30 a.m. this morning (tuesday), drank some water, threw it up, then felt fine. i have noticed i feel a little tired, too, today. i was a little sluggish getting out of bed. plus, i'm hungry because i didn't eat much dinner, and i haven't eaten breakfast yet. i guess i should do something about that, but it just seems like a bother. so weird! normally i'm all over the animal crackers in the common area at my work.

so, overall, i'm happy with this sinclair method. even if i puke in the a.m. and feel fine afterward, still better than a full-blown hangover! at least the guilt is gone, honestly. of course i'm not happy with the vomiting, but after all, drinking causes vomiting too, so i guess it's a push for now. at least these effects are supposed to be transient in nature, which i hope means that they'll go away after a couple more days.

the only problem is--i'm really distressed by the fact that this treatment isn't more available to people, especially when here, in the U.S., we're facing a total economic collapse under the weight of medicare, medicaid, and social security. i never even heard of this method--the stupid amazon automatic recommendation thing is the only reason i heard of eskapa's book! i wonder how much of the pressure on our social benefits system could be alleviated if this method were popularized. my boyfriend and i were brainstorming last night about why this isn't more widely known, and although some of the reasons are legit (i.e., doctors can't ethically tell problem-drinkers to keep drinking or drink more without some major social attitude changes), some of them are just financiall-related. like, for example, the patent's expired on naltrexone, so it's generic, which means that it's potentially a VERY inexpensive drug for individuals. the downside is that no pharmaceutical company will spend billions on an ad campaign for a generic drug. i'm on day #2, and i'm a believer. i suppose we'll have to see, but far as i can tell, all i need to do is take a stupid pill and just keep on doing what i'm doing, which is drinking.

[MyRedWhine]

Experience with Naltrexone

me too

oops, posted twice.

[tsfitness]

Experience with Naltrexone

Hi there
I am also very interested in the Sinclair method; I just ordered the book that describes it in detail. Please keep us posted. I have ordered the Topa and am still waiting, and will give that a try first. Did you go to a doc for a script for the Nal, or order online? Just curious. I am being a renegade ( some would say irresponsible) by flying solo, no doc, etc. Just my own research, a wing and a prayer. Please keep me posted. And best of luck. Feel free to send me a private message. Thanks!
ts

[MyRedWhine]

Experience with Naltrexone

ts fitness:

hi there. i'm flying solo. i read the book, did the research, ordered from online. no therapy, no AA, just me and the pills. and no, i don't think it's irresponsible. i'm a medical malpractice attorney (i actually defend doc's) and i think the only irresponsible thing is trusting blindly in the medical profession to do what's best for you.

the one thing i would ask is regarding liver function. i happened to have a comprehensive panel back in July that showed my liver functions were fine. i'm not sure i would go forward if i didn't have that reassurance, as those with severe liver problems are probably not proper candidates for this treatment, as high enough doses of naltrexone demonstrate hepatoxic effects. fortunately, even your family doc will probably order liver function tests if you complain about any generic stomach problem, so it's easy enough to obtain even if you don't say the real reason you want it done.