TSM-just 3 days in and already f-ing up!

[Myway2]

Forgot to take pill 1 hr before drinking my drink of choice and basicly swallowed it down with the wine. Insted of finising off my usual bottle and feeling satisfied I drank all but maybe 3 oz. of another, so strange I felt drunk but not good and buzzed. I've felt hungover all day and kinda hate myself. I wish I could just abstain today but I don't feel sick enough. So just took nal in prep for happy hour(s). Please anyone, incouragement, butt- kickin, kind word. I'm feeling so powerless!

[Otter]

TSM-just 3 days in and already f-ing up!

Try Baclofen. The success rate is much higher.

[LadyLush]

TSM-just 3 days in and already f-ing up!

Myway2,

I believe you are okay. You took that pill late and it helped somewhat but try and follow protocol in the future. Ignore advice that seems "off." Always look how long we have been here as well.

Hope you get there!

LL:l

[redhead77]

TSM-just 3 days in and already f-ing up!

Hi Myway2,

I know it's hard, isn't it? To remember to take that pill before you drink. If you want a drink, you want one now. Right? I am on high-dose baclofen, but tapered down due to the side effects (I can't seem to come down in my dose like so many others, and not have major cravings) I've dabbled in naltrexone a little bit, but I'm hardly an expert. It sounds like you drank even more than usual when you took your dose late? I haven't had that experience, but if I took the pill after I started drinking, it would make me feel drunk and very sick. An amount that shouldn't have made me sick and drunk did. I then thought I should try to take it every day so I wouldn't forget, and hoped it would help with cravings (I read somewhere in one or two studies that's what happened, but I think those people were already abstinent.) I would pop a 50 mg tablet in the afternoon. However, I only tried this for about 5 days. Here lies my problem. That 50 mg didn't stop the cravings like bac (but it did seem to help some), and I didn't like having them so often. I decided to titrate up on my baclofen and stop the naltrexone. So, I'm back up on a very high dose of baclofen (210 mg) and my cravings are better. But I'm having horrible SEs (my last titration up was only a few weeks ago, so I'm hopeful it will stop. But I'm always hopeful, and I'm one of the few who can switch but not have the SEs stop, or that's what's happened up until now.) I just can't seem to find a happy medium.

Anyway, I had to tell you my story so you would understand why I'm writing what I am. What I think you should try, if you can, is to take the naltexone every day. That way you don't have to force yourself to hold out if you want to have a drink. That's what I'll do (again and longer) if my SEs don't go away this time on the bac, and I have to come down. I would take the pill in the afternoon.

Otter, where in the world do you get that the success rate is higher? You would need studies that compared the two to write something like that. Let this person try what they want, and seek the support they need. If they decide later it didn't work, and want to try HDB, then so be it.

Good luck with it! I wish you much success (and I was supposed to save all this for my thread, but I think it's best to get it out tonight. )

[Heavy Fuel]

TSM-just 3 days in and already f-ing up!

Hi! I hope things are better for you today than yesterday. I follow TSM, and have for over seven months. It has changed my life, my current consumption is about 1/3 of my pre TSM consumption. Yes, I have drank before the hour is up, but rarely. It’s important not to make a habit of breaking the Golden Rule of TSM. Besides, if you want to replicate the results of the experiment, you have to replicate the conditions, right?

TSM takes a little bit of change in paradigm to embrace. To begin with, there is no guilt, blame or shame. TSM is about minimizing the harm alcohol does to your life at the very least. So, any thought that anyone should say anything negative to you is not within the “program.” TSM is based on research initially done on lab rats. Funny thing about lab rats, they aren’t bad, defective, nor weak: they simply are rats. And they respond at the same rate as people did later. So, this isn’t about a person’s will power or anything else. It’s about a learned behavior that has multiple components and needs to be changed. TSM fixes the reward portion, it’s up to us to change the rest.

Another part of the paradigm one must change is to accept TSM is really simple: take 50mg of naltrexone, wait one hour and drink as you normally would, not as anyone else does. So, drinking is going to be a part of the treatment. There is no guilt about drinking, it’s necessary to replicate the treatment. When you don’t plan on drinking, don’t take the pill. Early on, it may be months before you decide you are ready for an alcohol free day. No guilt or shame in how long that takes.

TSM takes a while. It’s more of a marathon than a sprint. After all, we didn’t become alcoholics over night. The enduring lesson of Pavlov’s experiments I remember is the longer the bell is rung, the longer it takes to extinguish the behavior. There are some interesting threads on timeline on the Sinclair Method forum.

The advantages of TSM is naltrexone has fewer side effects than anything else I have researched. It doesn’t require white knuckling. It doesn’t make me sick on purpose. And, as someone else pointed out, alcohol is humanely removed from one’s life.

A suggestion, I would set an alarm an hour before my normal drinking times, just for now. When you are ready, and you will know when, you will choose not to take that pill. Until then, it’s a safe approach.

Take care!

[Myway2]

TSM-just 3 days in and already f-ing up!

Thank you all for your input. Man, I can really drink a lot, so unlady- like! I will persevere...

[YouKayBee]

TSM-just 3 days in and already f-ing up!

I'm a perfect TSm follower in that I have never drunk without Naltrexone since the day I started 11 months ago.

Back then like Redhead describes I could hardly wait the 1 hour - when I wanted a drink I certainly wanted it there and then. So what I did(and was told to do by the Dr prescribing) was take my Nal mid to late morning. It'll cover you for up to 24 hours, but has maximum effect 1-4 hours and a reasonable effect 8-12 hours later (I did once forget and have a lunch-time drink with friends however I had taken Nal the previous evening and believe this still just about had me covered although I did rush off and take another dose within 20 minutes of that one drink). Also if 8 hours did pass without a drink, and I thought I'd definitely be drinking later that night I'd top up with another 25mg (half a 50mg). I did this daily until I was able to feel I was in control, and could wait out that hour. Now if I forget, or am presented with alcohol and I've not taken Nal, I just say no thank you. It's simply not worth the risk to me - I might be cured but not willing to chance it!

The other thing I'd like to add is that some say it's harmful not to drink, and some TSMers don't like to take the dose if they don't know they are going to drink. All I can say is that I have taken Nal on many occasions, waited and not drank because I simply don't feel like it or the opportunity hasn't arisen. It never did me any harm at all, and in my opinion ANY AF days are a bonus - they get you used to not drinking an dealing with things without alcohol. My rule of thumb is drink when you feel like it, cover yourself by taking Nal early as possible but if you don't feel like it you don't have to either. This can leave you feeling flat, but once you start getting AF/Nal free days in the rebound from the endorphin receptors being freed up is amazing!

So perhaps you could try taking it earlier in the day?

On the off chance you drink in the morning you could take the dose last thing at night, or during a bathroom trip middle of the night.

Hope this helps.

[Myway2]

TSM-just 3 days in and already f-ing up!

Thank you for sharing your experiences and advice. The nal makes me so tired, I've had 3 glasses of wine and I miss my happy buzz right about now! Does the tiredness go away?

[Heavy Fuel]

TSM-just 3 days in and already f-ing up!

Yes and no. The tiredness goes away, but the "warm" buzz of alcohol doesn't come back. But that's a good thing! The lack of a warm buzz means the endorphins aren't finding a home. The Sinclair Method forum has much more information about what happens.

Not knowing what your pre TSM and current intake numbers are, but it sounds like you are in the "honey moon." Early on, there is a sharp decrease in intake, followed by "extinction bursts" and reducing total intake, but short term increases. My usage shows ups and downs, with an ever downward slope. It's just slow.

[YouKayBee]

TSM-just 3 days in and already f-ing up!

I found the tiredness a positive thing, plus normal drinkers often tell me alcohol makes them wind down. For me prior to TSM alcohol fired me up, with nal I feel like finishing and going to my bed a lot sooner. I prefer that effect!

[Guitarista]

TSM-just 3 days in and already f-ing up!

Great to see you Uk blonde. Your posts are always great value in my mind.

Best wishes to everyone on their respective journey's