Nal is here! Newbies Unite (& U SAHMs)

[DisEase]

Oh my new Nal Friends! So glad to literally be walking this path with you. I can't believe I woke up with a clear head! It is almost as if I did not drink at all last night, that kind of clear head. And that is something I am not use to after a drinking night as I never stop when enough is enough (enough is when there is no more wine in the house!). WOW is all I can say. So regardless of how Nal works for me tonight or in the future, I was given the gift of this morning. And around here, a sober morning is truly a gift. Not only to me, but the kids.

Got up at 6:30 to let the puppy out to potty without feeling like crap and resenting her! And then instead of crawling back into bed hoping my hangover will be gone by the time the kids wake up, I made a pot of coffee and decided to take the pup for a walk. It was 7am and I was amazed that I could have held a sober conversation with any of the neighbors if I had run into them. And even though I wore my sunglasses, I DID NOT HAVE TO, if you know what I mean!!!!. I had almost 2 hours to myself, alert and feeling good and really hopeful about my drinking. That is priceless my friends. Al can't take this AM away from me. Ever. And it was wonderful.

So nice to be up and clear eyed before my babies. To be clear eyed FOR my babies. This is how I feel when I have AF days, so to feel this way when I drank last night, it is kind of mind boggling. I realize I did drink significantly less (and I was trying to drink) last night. At the salon and at the bar I had 4 glasses of wine but they were,"sissy drinks", meaning they don't feel the glass to the rim like I do at home: )

I will do 25mg again tonight. Kinda bummed I did not feel any side effects as it appears to be a good indicator of seeing positive results on this med. Oh well, as I said earlier, Nal bought me today and for that I am thankful. Gonna go play with my pumpkins now!!!! Thanks for having these conversations with me. I think it will help keep us engaged, and hopeful, keep us informed and well…accountable. Accountable is good because I lost the ability to be accountable to myself along time ago. Man I can write a lot, huh!

[eight days a week]

What a wonderful start Ease!

Originally Posted by DisEase

...Kinda bummed I did not feel any side effects as it appears to be a good indicator of seeing positive results on this med...

You felt an effect on you and your drinking, that's at least as good a sign as any 'side' effect in my book - it's the main one!!

[scot98]

Hi all, Well my second night was again quite strange, the first glass I poured lasted me 2 hours! To be honest I really struggled with drinking the bottle, it was also not very enjoyable.
Side effects weren't bad, same as night before, I took 25 mg again and felt a bit nauseous, woke up feeling pretty good until I noticed the dog had pooed all over my sitting room carpet! Not a great start to the day.

I have taken 50 mg tonight and just about to have a glass.

Eight days, No I bought the Nal online, I did go and see my GP but he hadn't even heard of Naltrexone. There is a Psychiatrist in Edinburgh using it with some of his patients with apparantly mixed results, I think compliance was the biggest problem.

DisEase, Hope things are still going well for you

[DisEase]

My 2nd night on Nal was pretty similar to yours scot98. I was struggling to drink my wine and really could have taken it or have left it because the buzz is different/almost non-existent, so it seems, what's the point? That is what I kept thinking as my hubby and our friends kept emptying their glasses and pouring more. Mine sat in front of me for 2x as long as theirs, and I actually poured part of 2 of my glasses of wine out because they sat there so long, the wine got warm!!! This is funny for 2 reasons, never ever does my wine last so long it gets warm. And 2, even if it had, in the past I know I would have just slammed it on the way to fridge to get the cold bottle to refill my glass.

I woke up again with a clear head. My friend and I opened to bottles (the little ones that my hubby calls "airline size" but there not, they are normal old winery size) and there was 1/2 bottle left this morning. Last Sat I would have polished that off on my way to the bedroom to brush my teeth, whether or not I needed it, so pretty amazing the wine survived the night. I really had no desire last night. I could have been drinking water.

Met some friends for brunch today. I took 25mg an hour before getting there and could not even finish the ONE mimosa I ordered. It was that weird time warp thing again where all of the sudden they were all ordering drinks and mine was sitting in front of me 3/4s full. And not cause I was trying to pace myself or anything, my drink was just not on my mind.

Worried about going to 50mg. It seems to be working at 25mg. Since I have not read the book, does everyone go up the 50 mg because we all have the same number of neural pathways? It seems odd to me that my hubby, who is roughly twice my weight, would take the same dosage as I do. It just seems counter intuitive - but again, I have not read the book so maybe the 50mg is the sweet spot? Maybe everyone starts at the 25mg level to help the people who have really bad side effects to Nal ease into the medication, or something? If you know, or have any thoughts on this, I would love to hear from you!

[Chocolate Mousse]

New here to the Nal also. I had started on Bac was on it for about two weeks but I have stopped and am concentrating my efforts solely on the Nal now. I wanted to just to one at a time. I started on 25mg for the first two sessions no problem with side effects at all. then went up to 50mg again no problem. I am now on about my fifth sesssion of Nal and have just had a great weekend in that I drank just over two bottles of wine between friday, saturday and sunday. before I could easily have done this in one day! Will keep posting here also as I have had a thread with my baclofen journey but as I am not going ahead for the time being anyway with that I shall join all you lovely folk here.


love and good wishes to us all on this journey xxx

[eight days a week]

Originally Posted by DisEase

Worried about going to 50mg. It seems to be working at 25mg. Since I have not read the book, does everyone go up the 50 mg because we all have the same number of neural pathways? It seems odd to me that my hubby, who is roughly twice my weight, would take the same dosage as I do. It just seems counter intuitive - but again, I have not read the book so maybe the 50mg is the sweet spot? Maybe everyone starts at the 25mg level to help the people who have really bad side effects to Nal ease into the medication, or something? If you know, or have any thoughts on this, I would love to hear from you!

Hey Ease, I'm not entirely sure how weight affects metabolism of Nal (in fact I have no idea!) but it would make sense that your husband doesn't have twice the neural pathways even if he is around twice your weight!

Yes, most people start at 25mg, because of the side effects. Few are reported in the book but real life experiences have proved to be very different.

Mousse, why not start your own Nal journey thread, if you'd feel it helpful to you?

Good luck everyone as you start out on this journey, I am very hopeful for you

[scot98]

Hi all, I took 50mg last night after my dinner and it was fine, unfortunately the wine flowed a little more easily and I drank about 1 and half bottles with relative ease.
I felt pretty nauseous today and also tired with a headache which may of course been related to the wine I drank, not sure, but the nausea was I feel related to the 50mg I had taken. I have only taken 25mg tonight as I do not want to feel crap at work tomorrow, I don't work Mondays.

Good to hear how everyone is getting on, I will try and give regular updates on how things are going and catch up with everyones progress.

Best to all

[eight days a week]

Hey scot,

I've heard of nausea as a side effect, but didn't get that myself. I've also read a lot about strange dreams and night disturbances, but I didn't get those either, luckily. I did get a really strange and unpleasant sense of 'disconnect' from reality for the first few days on Nal - so much so that by the third day I didn't even want to take the stuff, but just forced myself to. And so glad I did stick with it! The SEs go away within days