Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

[lenaleed]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

Welcome, Angelfood

Thanks for joining us, Angelfood. According to Eskapa, three months is just a rough estimate minimum and not a magic number.

SpringerRider;524166 wrote: ... the real key is to take Nal and drink as you have always drank and let the re-learning take place.

We can expect to just naturally lose interest in drinking. That's how we know we have completed the process.

Then the method calls for what Eskapa calls the Golden Rule: Always take Naltrexone before you drink. Eskapa's book explains this in detail.

The Sinclair Method does not include the use of Campral. You and your doctor must make a decision about whether to use Campral or stick to the Sinclair method.

I hope you stop by often to share.

Lena

[Carolelynn]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

I'm with you guys. Day 5 for me. Haven't read either book yet but the theory behind Sinclair makes sense. It's good to have a group of experimenters going thru this at the same time. Whatever works. I too exerienced a decrease in my desire to drink the first few days. Last nite, the 4th day I drank 3 bottles of beer and a shot of vodka. I smoked some weed too, which I will try not to do again when I am drinking. I took the Nal in the morning, which I will now change to the afternoon, based on your comments. One thing I am going to do differently than y'all is to take the Nal everyday whether I drink or not.
Just so you know "my story" in a nutshell..... I never tried to quit b4, am a daily drinker/high tolerance/sometimes drink starting at mid morning./been drinking more and more for about 13 years/now getting out of control.
Glad to find my way to this group

[rv9]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

Carolelynn;524213 wrote: One thing I am going to do differently than y'all is to take the Nal everyday whether I drink or not.

Carolelynn, ultimately it's up to you of course, but there is a good reason to not take Naltrexone if you're not drinking. This is according to Dr. Eskapa.

Opioid receptor "upregulation" is a phenomenon that happens when you take Naltrexone without drinking. What happens is that more opioid receptors are created and/or unmasked in the brain and the new receptors can be more sensitive.

You become more prone to addiction to activities that release endorphins if you subsequently engage in those activities without a blocking dose of Naltrexone.

This can be good and bad... If you stop your Naltrexone for a couple days and start jogging or lifting weights, you might find it becomes a habit more easily. On the other hand, if you find yourself out of Naltrexone and drink, you will reinforce the drinking habit much more than you ever did before Naltrexone.

So I guess the most important thing if you want to take it every day regardless is to make sure you never run out!

[aurora borialis]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

Hello again all. I just wanted to share with you that last night I had a date and we went for Italian. I took my Nal one hour before and then we had wine with dinner. I had 2 regular sized glasses. Then he dropped me off and when I got home is when the amazing part happened. I had 2 bottles of wine in the house and I would have drank them both in the past totally. Well, I had one small glass and didn't even think of having anymore. Not for one minute. I went to bed and woke up feeling great. No hangover!!! I am so happy about this method. Sooo happy. Cheers all. I am able to do things I could not do before.

[SpringerRider]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

Congrats Potato,
It sounds like you are making progress. We are a little bit of the blind leading the blind here but we do a member or two that has nearly fulfilled the protocol.

Carolelynn, as RV9 said, it is your choice but please read the book and I would urge you to follow the protocol to the word. You do not want to suppress the reUptake of endorphines when you are not drinking. You may find yourself "turning off" good things. You mind need a chance to process other things in your life. Also, the study group shows that those that did best were those that followed the protocol. If is too simple

If you are going to drink, take Nal.
If not, don't take Nal.

Nal + Drinking = Cure

Other then a less than 150 page book, we have very little guidance. We are slithering through this process and tinkering with out brain as we do it. This ain't no time to try "rollin' your own".

Best of luck

[aurora borialis]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

Thought I'd share what my therapist says about A.A. He says it is a philosophy that helped alot of people and that is fine, but he also says that they engage in "all or nothing thinking" which he believes is ultimately unhealthy for anyone. He always uses examples such as if you always say that you never do anything right then you dismiss all the good things you do. He also doesn't like it and corrects me in sessions when I use "all or nothing language". We are human and are strong enough to change even the most rigid of ideals if necessry. Otherwise we just stagnate. If you ask me. That ain't healthy. We will have to become the change. I'm into that.

[SpringerRider]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

potato;524324 wrote: Thought I'd share what my therapist says about A.A. He says it is a philosophy that helped alot of people and that is fine, but he also says that they engage in "all or nothing thinking" which he believes is ultimately unhealthy for anyone.

I agree in that change is incremental.
Don't expect your shrink to recommend for you to take Nal and drink. I told my MD about the Sinclair method and he just smiled and said, "you didn't hear that from me". But we are not drinking on Nal for sun. It is our mediciene. It is our cure.

Don't expect AA to get on board any time soon. I have 26 yrs. with AA.

[aurora borialis]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

I don't care what anyone else says. I am going to do this. 72 studies in europe can't be bogus. Everyone else can kiss my @#$%. I believe this and that"s all there is to it.

[rv9]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

potato;524489 wrote: I don't care what anyone else says. I am going to do this. 72 studies in europe can't be bogus. Everyone else can kiss my @#$%. I believe this and that"s all there is to it.

Don't forget the COMBINE study, which was the biggest study of its kind in the world. It was an American study and indirectly validated the Sinclair Method's approach.

The most important aspect, from a cost, time and trouble standpoint, was that it found that counseling and other behavioral intervention are absolutely unnecessary when using Naltrexone. So if you encounter a GP or shrink who refuses to prescribe naltrexone unless you enter counseling or AA, you might consider gently reminding them that that approach is contrary to the published studies (the unspoken message being that they are opening themselves to a malpractice suit if they deny you a proven effective treatment).

[aurora borialis]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

Fortunatly for me I have been seeing my therapist for well over ten years. Through two boughts in rehab and many other issues related to my binge drinking. He is ready to see me succeed no matter what. I don't think that the people on this thread understand about what my bingy drinking has done. In terms of damage to life and relationships. It may not be everyday but when it happens it is like a little hurricaine to every one around. It is not an easy thing. It is very destrutive and intense. It used to result in incredible damages to my family and property.

[lenaleed]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

Hey 'Tato -- I may not get it but I do sense an intensity about your quest to be free of the stifling grip of alcohol and that's what I can relate to. I was overjoyed to read your post re: going out and not coming home to drink the house dry. The common eperience we on this thread have is not how many drinks we take or how many days we drink. Our common experience is being slaves to the tyrrany of alcohol. We think we have found a way to break the grip, but it's pretty scary putting our faith in a way that contravenes the conventional wisdom on so many levels. We all sort of assembled ad hoc on this site in the last few days. But you have been out there on your own, weeks/light years ahead of us. Thank God you have a therapist who took the leap of faith with you, and now we have the benefit of you sharing your experience. We can all lean on each other for the rest of the journey. Tell your therapist thanks from us and we hope there will be more where he came from in the future. Clinical trials notwithstanding, blessed is he who believes without seeing. Or something along that line. And right now on the tv they are talking about some guy who said, "We are the change we have been waiting for." Yes we are.

[Carolelynn]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

If you are going to drink, take Nal.
If not, don't take Nal.
Well I guess it wouldn't hurt if I didn't take the Nal when I don't drink. I will buy the book tomorrow too. What do y'all think if I have at least one drink a day for w couple weeks, so the Nal will build up in my system, and then after that only take the Nal if I want to drink?
Tonight I drank a beer about 1 hour after I took the Nal. That was all I had today. I didn't get buzzed and I didn't feel like I wanted anymore.

[bloggy]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

I tried following the Sinclair method a few months back- I gave up after about a week as I was doing it completely solo, and only with information I had gleaned from various websites- the book was not available on amazon.co.uk and it takes about 3 weeks to get here from the US so I thought I would wait and order it when it got to the UK.

I gave up with the Nal because I was feeling nauseous and my eyes had gone a bit yellow- as though I had been drinking heavily for a week.

I have been doing quite well with the drinking lately- my current circumstances make it quite difficult to get away to drink, but I don't feel I am 'getting better' just that I am at present not in a position to drink- but given half a chance maybe I would be back where I was, I don't know how I would react right now.

I would like to give the Nal another go, the theory of 'unlearning' the drinking process really reasonated with me as I feel I did just learn it, and my brain is wrongly wired, rather than there being 'something wrong' with me.

I have ordered the book from Amazon.com (it still isn't available from Amazon.co.uk) so I should have it around the first week of February. In the meantime, if I feel I am going to have a drink, I will take 25mg of Nal, between half an hour to an hour before- otherwise I won't take it.

To those following the book- do I have it right?

[bloggy]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

Carolelynn;524632 wrote: If you are going to drink, take Nal.
If not, don't take Nal.
Well I guess it wouldn't hurt if I didn't take the Nal when I don't drink. I will buy the book tomorrow too. What do y'all think if I have at least one drink a day for w couple weeks, so the Nal will build up in my system, and then after that only take the Nal if I want to drink?
Tonight I drank a beer about 1 hour after I took the Nal. That was all I had today. I didn't get buzzed and I didn't feel like I wanted anymore.

I hope someone else can give you a correct answer Carolelynn, but in my experience Nal worked almost immediately, so you do not have to let 'it build up' in the system. In the same way, I think withing 48 hours all traces had gone.

As others say, I would but the book straightaway- I think that was where I went wrong, just trying to fill in the gaps I did not know by myself.

[lenaleed]

Strictly Sinclair Method Weekly Thread

Hi Marbella and Carolelynn --

I'm glad you both plan to get the book. This thread is support for those of us trying to follow the Sinclair method precisely, and Eskapa's book has far more information than we can convey on this thread. Taking Naltrexone is not the same thing as practicing the Sinclair Method.

I have noticed on the boards that those who learn and practice Sinclair have a far smoother experience than those who got some Naltrexone and got started based on the bits and pieces they had heard, or try to do things differently from what the book says. That includes me. That's why I decided to start this thread.

If you want to join us before you read the book, I will describe what we are doing, based on what Eskapa instructs: We take 25 mg for the first two days, then 50 mg. I did not follow this and took 50mg the first day and got sick. I followed the book's directions and now am fine. Eskapa does not discuss a dose lower than 50 mg. Dosage is based on the amount necessary to cover all the opioid receptors in the brain. They all must be blocked for pharmacological extinction to take place.

Many of us notice a reduced desire to drink during the first few days. This is fleeting and NOT the Sinclair Method at work. The method works gradually, without our feeling it, over several months' time. We know the method is working as we gradually lose interest in alcohol. We do NOT expect any meaningful effect to take place in a few days.

We take Naltrexone one hour before we begin to drink. If we do not plan to drink, we do not take Naltrexone. We drink as we normally do and track our drinking. Every few weeks, we study our tracking and will notice our drinking trending down. After three to six months, we wil have lost our preoccupation with drinking. At that point, we will choose whether we wish to be abstinent or continue as the moderate drinkers we have become. We will continue to use Naltrexone one hour before every time we take a drink.

Naltrexon+Drinking+Cure.

Marbella, Eskapa advises working closely with a physician, and a liver function test prior to beginning Naltrexone. The Naltrexone package insert advises physicians to use caution when prescribing for patients with liver disease. The book contains a chapter for medical professionals. Many of us have provided our physicians with a copy of the book, as very few are familiar with the method. Eskapa doesn't say anything about a reduced dose. The Sinclair Method calls for 50 mg.

Sinclair says his method is not for those planning to use Naltrexone as an anticraving med. It is not for those who presently are abstinent. It is not for those hoping to attain immediate moderation.

This is the very rudimentary basics. An early post on this thread contains a link to a podcast that gives more information. The book explains it all in detail.

We on this thread are in it for the long haul. We plan to support one another as we adhere to the method -- Strictly Sinclair.

Marbella, all good wishes for success, whether you choose to join us in this method, or any other course you decide. I'm so glad you posted here! Take care -- Lena