Getting started

[droid]

Hello everyone,

I discovered this site two days ago and have been AF since then. I picked up some Campral on prescription after seeing my GP yesterday. I am looking to log my experiences with it to help others.

I am a 37 year old Australian male. I am a self employed professional with a 19 month old daughter and a 10 year old step son. I am recently married. I have always been a drinker and AL abuse runs in my family. My immediate family is healthy and happy. I have no stress, no money issues, no health issues, no childhood traumas... no excuses.

I have alway been able to moderate my drinking with 'No AL months' and other breaks from AL but in the last twelve months I have been breaking those commitments to moderate AL consumption. In the last twelve months I have noticed that I am becoming fixated with AL. I drink a bottle of red a night and sometimes more. When I go out with friends I drink as fast as I can but I don't know why. I find it impossible to stop at one glass of wine and I don't know why.

Australia has a very heavy AL culture so hiding AL abuse doesn't seem to be a big part of AL dependence here. However, I have just started being a bit sneaky with it to avoid concerning my wife with the amount I have been drinking.

I don't have any horror stories to speak of but I want to remind myself why I need to remove AL from my life. I am teaching my children that AL is a daily facet of adult life. I am putting AL before my children by being too tired and cranky to spend quality time with them. I am spending too much money on AL. I am generally a very confident person and AL abuse is slowly eating that away. My AL abuse is making me gain weight, suffer from minor health problems, lose motivation and lose ambition. I feel that I am at a cross road with this and I have no choice but to address it with abstinence.

Haha... When I started this I thought one paragraph would cover it...

My plan is to keep taking the Campral, do a daily journal entry about my experience and put AL behind me at all other times. I feel very optimistic.

The last time I abstained was for four days four weeks ago. At that time I was irritable and suffered from insomnia. I have been AF for 2 days now with campral and I feel slightly on edge and slept like a baby last night. I had a very small craving last night lasting about 15 minutes while I was discussing being AF with my wife. I haven't suffered any stomach upset or related issues as yet. Early days.

Thanks for listening.

Me

[JackieClaire]

Getting started

:welcome: droid,

Just wanted to say hello and give you the link to the tool box. It will help you get started with a plan.

https://www.mywayout.org/community/f1...box-27556.html

Glad to have you here. Keep posting, keep reading and make yourself comfy. You'll soon find names becoming more familiar.

Looking forward to following your journey.

J x
:l

[droid]

Getting started

Thanks Jackie

[j-vo]

Getting started

Good luck to you Droid. You'll find very helpful threads on this site to help you.

[Pride before Fall]

Getting started

Hi Droid,

This is one of my favorite threads for reminding me why I stopped.
https://www.mywayout.org/community/f1...ing-22609.html
The fact that you talked to your wife about it is great. You sound really committed. I wish you lots of strength and support.

Pride

[droid]

Getting started

Thanks everyone.

[shoots71]

Getting started

Droid,

good stuff mate addressing the issue, I have experience with campral and mostly its good positive stuff, for about the first two weeks I was taking it I was sick when ever I ingested alcohol, this is a really rare reaction to the drug and to be honest I think it was more excitement on my part at having seen a way past my problem.
I continued taking the campral for over a year and my drinking significantly decreased although I was not abstinent, which is I think the best think to do on campral. However I moved from the UK to Canada where I had to pay for my prescriptions the campral over here is bloody expensive so decided to see how I would go when I stopped taking it, my god what tailspin I was a drunken wreck. I reckon part of this was moving to a new country not working and trying to fit it but i cannot run away from the fact that campral was working i stopped taking it and went back to my old ways.
Which leaves me to where I am now I bit the bullet and went the doctors I am now armed with campral, and perhaps more importantly naltrexone, if you read up on the nal on this forum you will get all the information you need. I am now on day 6 AF and I know 100% i will not even have a thought of drinking today, if I did I would take the nal one hour before and the amount you drink is a joke, you have to force a pint down. I have sat with one pint throughout a three hour dinner.
Now over to the most important lesson the drugs are fine and work however and it is a massive however will power, and going to bars, and hanging with the boozers does not work for me you really really really need to break new ground, do different things seek out groups AA, Smart recover online forums anything because YOU WILL NOT GET FIXED ON YOUR OWN. Sorry for going on here mate but I see you are ozzie and I lived there for 12 years so feel a bit of kinship.
good look ace, and I will be looking out for you

[Choochie]

Getting started

Droid:welcome:. You've already gotten a lot of good advice here. Read as much as you can, make a plan, and let us know how we can help. You might want to post on the Just Starting Out thread or the General Discussion thread so more people can find you.

Good luck - you are just like most of us here - the progressive nature of the disease is what gets us. Suddenly things change - same for me and same for everyone here. You can give it up if you really want to and you will thank yourself for it if you do!! It gets easier.

Choochie

[frosty12]

Getting started

droid;1019740 wrote: Hello everyone,

I discovered this site two days ago and have been AF since then. I picked up some Campral on prescription after seeing my GP yesterday. I am looking to log my experiences with it to help others.

I am a 37 year old Australian male. I am a self employed professional with a 19 month old daughter and a 10 year old step son. I am recently married. I have always been a drinker and AL abuse runs in my family. My immediate family is healthy and happy. I have no stress, no money issues, no health issues, no childhood traumas... no excuses.

I have alway been able to moderate my drinking with 'No AL months' and other breaks from AL but in the last twelve months I have been breaking those commitments to moderate AL consumption. In the last twelve months I have noticed that I am becoming fixated with AL. I drink a bottle of red a night and sometimes more. When I go out with friends I drink as fast as I can but I don't know why. I find it impossible to stop at one glass of wine and I don't know why.

Australia has a very heavy AL culture so hiding AL abuse doesn't seem to be a big part of AL dependence here. However, I have just started being a bit sneaky with it to avoid concerning my wife with the amount I have been drinking.

I don't have any horror stories to speak of but I want to remind myself why I need to remove AL from my life. I am teaching my children that AL is a daily facet of adult life. I am putting AL before my children by being too tired and cranky to spend quality time with them. I am spending too much money on AL. I am generally a very confident person and AL abuse is slowly eating that away. My AL abuse is making me gain weight, suffer from minor health problems, lose motivation and lose ambition. I feel that I am at a cross road with this and I have no choice but to address it with abstinence.

Haha... When I started this I thought one paragraph would cover it...

My plan is to keep taking the Campral, do a daily journal entry about my experience and put AL behind me at all other times. I feel very optimistic.

The last time I abstained was for four days four weeks ago. At that time I was irritable and suffered from insomnia. I have been AF for 2 days now with campral and I feel slightly on edge and slept like a baby last night. I had a very small craving last night lasting about 15 minutes while I was discussing being AF with my wife. I haven't suffered any stomach upset or related issues as yet. Early days.

Thanks for listening.

Me

Hi Droid, :new:too!
I am on day 2 and it has been going fairly well, but not easy to do. I am staying close to this site and it has really helped. I'm also reading alot of the info on here and that has helped me alot. There are so many wonderful people here to help us newbies succeed. Take Care

[Tweed]

Getting started

Good luck Droid, I too live in Australia and I know what you mean about alcohol being such a part of our culture, you sure can drink a lot and have no one realize the drinking is getting out of control. The campral is a good start. I actually got referred by my GP into a public hospital program and that has been great, they also prescribed the naltraxone as well and I'll be going for therapy for three months. There may be a similar program in your area? I'm on day 30 now and feeling great. You can do it, keep us posted on your progress. Good luck!