My NAL Trip

[seeking1]

Hi, all.

I've been lurking and asking questions for a while, both here and on the TSM site. I've really appreciated your stories, openness, advice, and heart. I'm starting my own thread to log my progress. Please feel free to jump in. Hope I'm doing this okay -- It seems protocol is just start one's own. If I should be doing this somewhere else, please let me know and I'll move it. Hope I'm not stepping on any toes.

I've just finished Dr. Eskapa's book, just received my NAL by mail, and just begun TSM.

I've been drinking since I was 18. I am 38. I don't remember ever moderately drinking -- If I have one, I'm having all of them. I'm smart and tough, so I've been able to cover some of the wreckage. Drinking has colored my school, work, and relationships. I have never had a "rock bottom." Not sure why -- Likely has to do with my genetics, terrific family, and very patient husband. Have been to AA because of a DUI (had to attend a number of meetings for the offense) and liked the community but felt that if I was going to obsess about drinking, I might as well drink. (Hoping I don't offend any AA folks -- to each his or her own, and my experience there was VERY limited and naive.)

My pattern: Evening drinker. Will create celebratory or other situations to drink. I drink 1 1/2-2 bottles of wine about 4 days a week and complain about insomnia the other 3. Have been on and off -pam sleep meds so that I can sleep when I don't drink. How cosmopolitan of me.

Last night was my first NAL experience. I took 25 mg at 6 pm, waited an hour, then commenced my usual behavior, I thought.

I am SHOCKED. Last night, I was almost indifferent to alcohol compared to my usual behavior, and with no effort on my part. Total for night, out: 3 glasses. Total once home: 1 glass. Total, total: 4 glasses. THERE IS AN ALMOST FULL BOTTLE OF WINE UPSTAIRS RIGHT NOW. My husband, who usually watches me "lap" him, was drunker than I as we cabbed it home. He kept remarking that I was more interested in texting my friends than drinking, which is ridiculously amazing if you know me.

Went to bed with my husband instead of staying up to mess around on the computer (i.e., drink more) and slept through the night (used to think insomnia was a cause of drinking). It's 6:50 a.m. where I am, and I am not hung over -- instead, awake, alive, and sitting here thinking I might go for a walk.

Holy cow.

I know that there is a honeymoon period on NAL. I know that there will be work. I am just thrilled to have hope. I feel like I might get to have a life again.

Hi!

[eight days a week]

Nice to meet you seeking

Absolutely you have posted in the right place and are doing the right thing in having your own progress thread! It may help you tremendously on your journey, just as having mine (first on the TSM forum and now moved over to here) has helped me, and many others who have done the very same

Tremendous news on the honeymoon - most people think that if you have one it definitely means that Nal has a good (i.e. the 'required'!) effect on you. (that's not to say that people who don't have the honeymoon won't be successful on Nal, just that those that do almost certainly seem to).

It may only continue for a day or two more (mine was like that) but enjoy it and take heart from it.

The very best of luck on your journey, I'm looking forward to following how you're doing

8

[brightlite]

Hi Seeking and welcome.

Wine drinker/Nal taker here too. About 7 weeks in. I guess I had a short honeymoon period recently but last night I drank my usual bottle of wine. Kind of upset with myself this a.m. I was starting to feel good and have hope. All I can do is just keep taking the Nal one hour before. I wish you luck and keep posting your progress.

[seeking1]

Thank you, brightlite and 8! Brightlite, I've read a lot of the stories, including posts here, about NAL and wine. I have no idea yet how it will be for me. I occasionally drink other stuff, but I'm a red wine drinker by trade. That's because I'm such a worldly, sophisticated drunk, you see. I can embarrass myself in five languages.

8, it's encouraging to hear that those with early SEs have a good chance. That makes me happy! But as you say, I don't think ANY of us should get too discouraged by downs or too excited about ups because each drinker's pattern is unique. My early NAL aversion to wine could very easily go away -- and how funny that we're calling it the "honeymoon" when really what we're doing is shoving our trusty spouse out of bed.

Last night, I didn't feel like drinking but wanted to push this thing forward and was scared of insomnia, so I went for NAL + wine night #2. It took me an hour to drink the first glass, a half an hour to finish the second, and then on the third, I began to feel super queasy and, well, purple rain. Hoping that enough alcohol stayed in me that the cure equation had a chance to work.

Took a sleeping pill (Temazepam, mixed feelings about it as it is a benzo, but insomnia terrifies me) and got four hours' sleep. I'm hoping that as the endorphins associated with alcohol and the reliance on it to knock me out go away, I'll be able to taper off the sleep meds on nights I don't drink.

I've got a small party to go to for a couple of hours tonight. My drinking girlfriends will be there. I plan on taking my NAL and seeing how it goes. Going to try eating a bit more before taking it, esp. as I'm going up to 50 mg tonight. Crossing my fingers on the nausea!

I'm not normally a puker (sorry to be a bit graphic), but I guess the good news about last night is that before I found NAL, I probably would've puked, gone back to my bottle, and double-timed to get enough in me before bed. It was just impossible last night, and that makes me grateful.

Thank you for your support. It's so cool to talk with people who are on this same journey, and I so appreciate the honesty.

[Chocolate Mousse]

Hi Just wanted to chime in here! I am also a wine drinker and started on the Nal three weeks ago. I had my honeymoon just like yourself and was not able to drink more than two bottles of wine over the whole weekend. Any way I got back to 'normal' behaviour again in that I am now back to my average of 60 units per week! I am also like yourself seeking in that i have been drinking heavily since i was 18 and am now 39 years of age.

Hey 8, just wanted to say you are very encouraging to everyone here and you always try to welcome everyone equally...heres to you

Best of luck to us all xx

[PlainVanilla]

I guess it goes to show how individual this process can be. For what it's worth seeking1, the nausea I experienced as a side effect for the first ten days was always and only the next day, not in the evening when I took the Nal. In fact, in the beginning, taking the Nal at 4:00 so I could pop my cork at 5:00 prompt almost settled my stomach. It was mostly around 10-2 the next day that I would feel spacey and nauseous. Weird. In any event, good luck and think long-term.

[brightlite]

Originally Posted by seeking1

Thank you, brightlite and 8! Brightlite, I've read a lot of the stories, including posts here, about NAL and wine. I have no idea yet how it will be for me. I occasionally drink other stuff, but I'm a red wine drinker by trade. That's because I'm such a worldly, sophisticated drunk, you see. I can embarrass myself in five languages.

Now that is what we need around here.....someone with a sense of humor! Although.....my white wine has been known to be the cause of sophistication and embarrassment all in the same evening!

I was similar to Plainvanilla in that the few times that I was nauseous it was the next day. I also take my Nal at 4:00pm sharp and pop the bottle at 5:00pm.

I agree 8, you are a great source of knowledge and support and are always the first to welcome. A big thanks from me too!

[seeking1]

8, ChocolateMousse, PlainVanilla, and Brightlite, great perspective. I agree: long-term thinking is best. Celebrating these little milestones but aware that there probably is a long and zig-zagging way to the summit.

Brightlite: Sometimes I just skip the sophistication and go straight for the humiliation. And by "sometimes" I mean "usually."

[eight days a week]

Thank you so much for the kind words everyone it means an awful lot to me. I feel very selfish because I usually post on my 'own' thread and don't give as much support to others as I would like to, but that's just the situation I'm in right now.

If I have encouraged anyone at all I'm so glad. We are all in this together, in a sense, and we all just want to, and deserve to, get well. We are all priceless human beings that the world is much better with than without, so let's help each other get there!!

brightlite, please don't feel down because the honeymoon wore off. You had one, that's fantastic news! TSM is a rollercoaster of both drinking and emotions, but give it at least four months (maybe six) plus and your life may well be completely transformed, so chin up eh?! It's easy to get tied up in one day's feelings, but as seeking says, we've got to think long term. And the long term for us is peachy, of that I'm sure

[seeking1]

Nicely said, 8! I hope that my enthusiasm doesn't come off as selfish -- I plan on being here for anyone I can, at any stage. Brightlite, you are going to make it. No single day, week, or even month is going to be indicative for most of us of where we'll end up. I look at it like this: I was going to drink anyway. So now -- screw you, booze! You're medicine.