Naltrexone Works!

[Guest]

Naltrexone Works!

Thanks for you support Bleep, I am now on a mission to keep this thread towards the top of the forum.:H

Yes I had a few bad days, but without alcohol I've been able to get my head around a few things - and realised I needed to get a few things into perspective, as well as making some positive moves to improve certain parts of my life. If I'd been drinking I'd have become paranoid, obsessive and just gone around in circles. Instead I'm coming out of it quite nicely.

I've had zero cravings and so far this week have only managed half a glass of wine in 5 whole days.

The thing I like most about Nal is that if I do decide to drink, there is no longer that pressure and 99% of the time I do not go further than 1 or 2 units. As I've said a few times already 100% AF would be nice, but I am more or less there. I will probably have a few glasses tonight, and some tomorrow as part of social events, but I even half expect to get bored and put the drink down.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Naltrexone Works!

Kudos, ukblonde. Missed you when you were away, btw. Someone told me you were carousing around Europe. Hope it was fun.
Sorry for the heartache. It's lousy no matter what, but that much worse with booze, I should think. Seems like it should make it all go away, but in my experience it has just fueled the obsession and led to drunk-dialing, stupid emails, or the like. It's been so long, come to think of it, it may have been before email. :H
Anyway, sorry if I'm off-mark. Glad you're doing well.
I'll pop in, if you'd like, and make sure nal has a voice at the top. Or maybe this could be a general type-thingy.
Anyway.
:l

[KatieSmiles]

Naltrexone Works!

Keeping your thread at the top UK. You are doing amazingly well on the Naltrexone. I'm so happy for you!

[Phoenix1]

Naltrexone Works!

Hi everybody and it is working for you UKblonde,keep it up.
I haven't posted here for a long time so just a brief history.I was a binge drinker for as long as I can remember,30 years and when I drank I never knew when to stop,usually wine,vodka and beer.
I have been taking Nal since Sept 9th so almost 10 months.I had a little nausea and stomach cramps at the start for one day and zero SE's after that.I did have a short honeymoon period and several spikes since then but always felt it was working slowly in the background.
I cannot drink wine or vodka any more and I have tried to force it due to frustration of not been able to drink so I basically stick with beer as I can stomach that.I do still love drinks like Gran Marnier and cognacs and have found I still get a buzz from them so not sure why that is,maybe in time that will go away also.All in all it's not a big problem because I no longer get cravings to drink and the only reason I do is socially out of pure habit.
So my problem now is breaking the habit and to help with that I got some temposil from goldpharma,it's the same idea as antabuse except a lot less harmful and doesn't stay in the system for as long.So it's Friday 4th of July week end and I just took my temposil which for me will stay in my system for 3 days but usually I read its gone in 24 hours.I'm actually looking forward to going out tonight drinking my sparkling water and being the observer of drunks for a change.
I think everybodys journey is different so don't give up on it if you don't see results in the first months or if you have spikes,it doesn't hurt to keep taking it one hour before you drink.
My goal was to be able to drink a few beers once a week and I feel I'm almost there except for the force of habit and those gran marnier and cognac type drinks but I am so happy with my results and it has been effortless.

[KatieSmiles]

Naltrexone Works!

Great post Phoenix1.
It's always nice to read peoples success stories. I'm rolling into week 10 on Nal and feel it working slowly in the background too. Hopefully in 10 months I will have a success story to tell as well.

Good luck with the temposil
K

[Guest]

Naltrexone Works!

Yay everyone. Good to see some activity on here and keep it up.

Me well last night was a planned social drink, I had 1 medium (175ml) and 1 small (125ml) white wine. At the time accompanied by someone who was drinking pints and much faster than me.

Two observations - once again I'm drinking much slower than 'normal' people and am the one dragging heels. Part of this I know is the sensible side of me, but it's the Nal that is putting me in the position where I can make the right choices regards alcohol. Second thing is that I did actually notice I felt quite drunk after those 2 drinks, they only represent approximately 3.5 units perhaps it was because I had had a hard training session during the day? Anyway it's the first time I've felt like that so quickly. I also appeared to get dehydrated despite drinking water alongside. Perhaps these are all normal things, normal drinkers notice -whereas in the past I'd just have drunk right through it not noticing.

Good to see you looking at this from all angles NE, I remember you had some drinking spikes shortly after acheiving indifference with Baclofen. I wonder if that could have been evidence of something else at play that Baclofen wasn't covering.

[spuddleduck]

Naltrexone Works!

wehey uk. could you please bottle some of that 'sensible side' and get it on the market asap.

[hoping4better]

Naltrexone Works!

Uk, I've been on nal twice, once the typical "take this and don't drink" way and once tried the Sinclair Method for 10 months. Neither way helped with my drinking. I then tried baclofen but quit at 220mg due to the terrible side effects and no change in cravings or drinking. Next, topa. I didn't force up the dosage on that because my hair started falling out....so I stopped meds altogether for a time and my drinking got worse. Anyway, 11 days ago I started taking a nal/topa combo an hour before I drink, plus another topa in the morning. And I'm blown away. My drinking is down by more than 50% -- maybe 75%. I actually poured a glass of wine back in the bottle last night. I know there's a "honeymoon effect" with nal, but I never had that the first two times I took it. I'm just hoping that this combo will work....hoping and praying. It feels so good to go to bed and read a book -- an avid hobby of mine that has been difficult to maintain of late. Anyway, I'm inspired by your success and it gives me a tinge of hope. Are you on the TSM board, too?

[Guest]

Naltrexone Works!

hoping4better;1141231 wrote: Uk, I've been on nal twice, once the typical "take this and don't drink" way and once tried the Sinclair Method for 10 months. Neither way helped with my drinking. I then tried baclofen but quit at 220mg due to the terrible side effects and no change in cravings or drinking. Next, topa. I didn't force up the dosage on that because my hair started falling out....so I stopped meds altogether for a time and my drinking got worse. Anyway, 11 days ago I started taking a nal/topa combo an hour before I drink, plus another topa in the morning. And I'm blown away. My drinking is down by more than 50% -- maybe 75%. I actually poured a glass of wine back in the bottle last night. I know there's a "honeymoon effect" with nal, but I never had that the first two times I took it. I'm just hoping that this combo will work....hoping and praying. It feels so good to go to bed and read a book -- an avid hobby of mine that has been difficult to maintain of late. Anyway, I'm inspired by your success and it gives me a tinge of hope. Are you on the TSM board, too?

Hey Hoping4better

Good to hear that you are now enjoying success with your meds combination, yes I am on the Sinclair forum too - but I've not posted for a while, must find a minute to do so.

Last night I had one of those "I want to get pissed" evenings, partly because I know I'd not eaten enough during the day. It was really a hunger craving which I could have sated in a sensible manner, but I ordered pizza, a couple of chocolate bars and 2 bottles of alcohopops. I only managed 1 bottle, the other is in the cupboard now.

Had a quick tot up and my totals for last week are 11.6 units, average 2.9 units per session with 3 days AF. I think I'm now in week 11.

[Guest]

Naltrexone Works!

Let's have an update on the graph;










The most recent spike was due to an exception set of circumstances, which included a week 'social' drinking followed by a bit of a hair-down evening. It has not become the norm, which is a good sign. My drinks that week went something like Tuesday - Friday 2 or 3 units, then 14 units on the Saturday night which has skewed my averages a bit.

[Guest]

Naltrexone Works!

All still going ok here, had a glass or two of wine last night with friends. Took Nal a bit late and did wait the full hour through even though the others had started. Had one glass with the meal, and was given a glass at the theatre. I drank half of it then realised I really wasn't bothered, it was just making me tired so sat there with it in my hand for half an hour before passing it to someone else to finish. Declined further drinks because I simply couldn't be bothered.

I do have to still work at this though, since the first few mouthfuls of alcohol still do give me that warm feeling that makes me want to continue. Because of my history it is always a very scary point, wondering if this is the time it's going to stop working or something. I know deep down that if I really wanted to get hammered, I could but the thing is I don't want to - I'm simply not interested in going through all that sh1t again.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Naltrexone Works!

Cool graph, UK! Nice!

And great news. Looking forward to the next update.

[hoping4better]

Naltrexone Works!

I think that's the key. That you're just not interested and you don't want to. The desire isn't there. As long as you continue to feel that way, the fact that the first few sips of wine feel good is nothing. They make every "normal" drinker feel good.

[Guest]

Naltrexone Works!

One or two of you may have noticed the disappointment I had on Thursday night, when I appeared to lose control. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might get and still no-where near the sort of drinking I used to take part in. Some of my old behaviours did reappear - things like calling a taxi for a middle of the night trip to the 24 hr supermarket for more booze etc.

I didn't however wake wanting to continue drinking, and indeed stopped at 1 1/2 bottles of wine. This amount did leave me pretty whacked out and it's taken 24 hours to get back into my stride. After a brief consultation with someone else, I've found this is quite normal. It's also not the end of my 'honeymoon' in my opinion. Honeymoons are quite short with Nal, not 10-12 weeks! I will however experience spikes like this at times of 'new' triggers. Basically Nal breaks the link between drinking and it's resultant 'reward', and I know from my research that you need to drink as normal in order to extinguish the link in your brain. Initially I drank at home in response to urges, and I appear to have regained control in those circumstances. Recently however I've had a few changes to my routine, and a couple of out of the ordinary trigger situations have arisen. I noticed both times I've drunk with less control have been times when I've been 'desperate' to lose that control. Both times I drank in response to situations which arose, and I drank in a hurry. The times when I find it easy to stop at 1 or 2 I am drinking slowly, sure still getting the same warm glow initially, but I know that eases off after 10 or 20 minutes if I wait, and this is something I am doing conciously doing because I don't want to be drunk. I then find after that initial 20 minutes or so, subsequent intake doesn't drive me to drink more - infact I find it boring. The couple of times I've been drunk have been times I've gulped the wine (or beer) quickly.

Anyway the advice is to carry on taking Nal every time I drink, and as these trigger situations come up my brain will slowly be retaught that alcohol does not give it what it thinks it wants.

Apart from the 'triggers' I no longer experience cravings, or strong urges at all. If I was I would then be concerned Nal wasn't working for me. Last night I was able to go out to gig, without wanting a drink. There was a bar and others were drinking but I didn't want to, it didn't bother me. Well apart from when I got a couple of very stale, alcohol & tobacco whiffs from one or two dancing near me.

Yeuck! If only people realised how bad they smell when they drink too much, ha ha pot, kettle & black.:H

[mario]

Naltrexone Works!

Just a quick hello uk, glad it seems to be working for you :-)