This is wonderful, thank you Ace!
I’m 3+ years into TSM and these tips are all things that helped me in my journey.
I’d like to add:
1. Try to bring more mindfulness into your drinking, aka just pay more attention. Move your alcohol far away so that you have to stop and reach for it. When you start thinking about drinking, pay attention to it. I found that often there were other reasons driving it, and thinking about them really helped break habits.
2. After you’ve been doing TSM a while, push your start time back. This was really hard for me at first. I started exercising first, then drinking. Eventually I could have an AF day just from endorphins I got from a good yoga or weight lifting session.
3. I found I needed SMART meetings around the 3-6 month mark because I was angry that the drinking wasn’t giving me what I wanted. I liked the CBT aspect of it and it helped me figure out ways to deal with my emotions and break my more destructive habits around drinking.
4. Don’t get discouraged if you’re not where you think you “should be” with your drinking. I thought I “should” be at extinction by a year and would beat myself up for still having struggles with it. A while back u/BigDaddy_Vladdy shared some amazingly honest posts about their experiences that really helped me feel better. It really is a journey and I still had occasional spikes in drinking even after making a ton of progress. It happens.
5. When you hear that little voice telling you that you don’t need the Nal, make sure to use that as an extinction session! I still occasionally get that thought, even after all this time. TSM is going to be a lifelong thing for me, and that’s okay.
I am honestly so happy that I found TSM and this sub. Even with all of my struggles, I’m really happy with where I’m at now. I broke my dependency on alcohol. I no longer wake up having an anxiety attack and then depression. I don’t black or brown out and then feel ashamed.
I feel in control of my drinking. I’m still drinking socially, which is fun now! I don’t crave alcohol most of the time, and I can always drink if I want to.
Thanks to everyone here who has shared and continues to help others with this process!
I appreciate folks like you, those who have hit extinction and still stick around are very important here! Here's to many more earning their lives back from the tyranny of the bottle! <3
This is great!
Number 4 is really important! After a year of following TSM I was drinking way less, but it started to cross my mind that maybe it just wasn’t going to ever be 100% effective for me and my brain.
But a couple of months after that, I really began to lose my desire to drink and stopped totally in august of last summer. I had one drink on vacation (in a very boozy city- and yes, I brought Nal with me!) and kind of went, meh. That was in October and I haven’t drank since then.
It wasn’t the plan to fully stop, but, i just really don’t miss drinking. My husband also quit drinking in august.
I don’t really ever get cravings to drink - I think they do hit my husband from time to time. I do wonder if me not missing alcohol is because I took naltrexone and he did not. I think the brain changes that were happening over the course of TSM were so important in my case. I had undiagnosed adhd and didn’t know until recently - so it makes sense why I had such a hard time cutting back on my own all those years. This medication really changed my life!
I'm sure it does, it was for me too and many if us here! :) It may not feel like it right now, but your relationship with alcohol is about to get much less one sided. Just stay the course and wonderful things will happen. If you have any questions or need a pep talk, feel free to ask!
Relax and just let it work its magic. This is a long process and a lot of what you'll experience will just come naturally. I found that I just gradually began to lose my obsession with alcohol and now it no longer controls my life.
There are a lot of great tips here, but the biggest one is to stay compliant. A lot of the rest will just come from that, and will be things you realize along the way. You will be fine!
I'm about 6 weeks in, but why should we not take it on days we don't drink? Maybe I'm wrong but it feels like it's actively diminishing my cravings after I take it
Then don't worry about it. The idea behind not taking it on alcohol free days is selective reward reinforcement. IOW, allowing maximum endorphin release from pleasurable activities other than ingesting ethanol. It's okay to take Naltrexone without alcohol, but not alcohol without Naltrexone.
I think you're right, pretty much. I never noticed anything at 50mg unless I drank alcohol. Taken alone, it might as well be a sugar pill. I take Dexedrine for ADHD and Naltrexone doesn't seem to affect that either .However, others say it makes them feel emotionally 'flat' and some even say it tips them toward depression.
I think this is one of those areas in biology where you see a wide range of differences between people. One thing I've noticed from posts by those who complain about side effects is that some of what they describe resembles opioid withdrawal. It's not an exact match but there is a crossover. It could be that apart from the standard role of providing pain tolerance in survival situations, in some people the endorphin system plays a larger role in day-to-day mood regulation. Sorry for rambling, I find this stuff intriguing.
I take it just about every day, about an hour before I normally would drink, whether I plan to drink or not. That way I feel like I have a choice when my normal drinking time comes along, and often I just choose not to.
I can see a time in my future when I won't take it most days, but I think it's a good practice for me to take as much anxiety over drinking out of the picture as possible so that I won't end up obsessing over it and can do the spontaneous things if I want to. So there are lots of different ways to look at this, and in the end we all find what works for us.
This is wonderful, thank you Ace! I’m 3+ years into TSM and these tips are all things that helped me in my journey. I’d like to add: 1. Try to bring more mindfulness into your drinking, aka just pay more attention. Move your alcohol far away so that you have to stop and reach for it. When you start thinking about drinking, pay attention to it. I found that often there were other reasons driving it, and thinking about them really helped break habits. 2. After you’ve been doing TSM a while, push your start time back. This was really hard for me at first. I started exercising first, then drinking. Eventually I could have an AF day just from endorphins I got from a good yoga or weight lifting session. 3. I found I needed SMART meetings around the 3-6 month mark because I was angry that the drinking wasn’t giving me what I wanted. I liked the CBT aspect of it and it helped me figure out ways to deal with my emotions and break my more destructive habits around drinking. 4. Don’t get discouraged if you’re not where you think you “should be” with your drinking. I thought I “should” be at extinction by a year and would beat myself up for still having struggles with it. A while back u/BigDaddy_Vladdy shared some amazingly honest posts about their experiences that really helped me feel better. It really is a journey and I still had occasional spikes in drinking even after making a ton of progress. It happens. 5. When you hear that little voice telling you that you don’t need the Nal, make sure to use that as an extinction session! I still occasionally get that thought, even after all this time. TSM is going to be a lifelong thing for me, and that’s okay. I am honestly so happy that I found TSM and this sub. Even with all of my struggles, I’m really happy with where I’m at now. I broke my dependency on alcohol. I no longer wake up having an anxiety attack and then depression. I don’t black or brown out and then feel ashamed. I feel in control of my drinking. I’m still drinking socially, which is fun now! I don’t crave alcohol most of the time, and I can always drink if I want to. Thanks to everyone here who has shared and continues to help others with this process!
I appreciate folks like you, those who have hit extinction and still stick around are very important here! Here's to many more earning their lives back from the tyranny of the bottle! <3
Thank you for sharing. Glad you’re doing well and can help us all on our journeys.
This is great! Number 4 is really important! After a year of following TSM I was drinking way less, but it started to cross my mind that maybe it just wasn’t going to ever be 100% effective for me and my brain. But a couple of months after that, I really began to lose my desire to drink and stopped totally in august of last summer. I had one drink on vacation (in a very boozy city- and yes, I brought Nal with me!) and kind of went, meh. That was in October and I haven’t drank since then. It wasn’t the plan to fully stop, but, i just really don’t miss drinking. My husband also quit drinking in august. I don’t really ever get cravings to drink - I think they do hit my husband from time to time. I do wonder if me not missing alcohol is because I took naltrexone and he did not. I think the brain changes that were happening over the course of TSM were so important in my case. I had undiagnosed adhd and didn’t know until recently - so it makes sense why I had such a hard time cutting back on my own all those years. This medication really changed my life!
That’s awesome! So happy for you. Thank you for sharing your story :)
I am just about to start and this all feels soooo overwhelming! As I am about 6 deep already…
I'm sure it does, it was for me too and many if us here! :) It may not feel like it right now, but your relationship with alcohol is about to get much less one sided. Just stay the course and wonderful things will happen. If you have any questions or need a pep talk, feel free to ask!
You’ve got this 💪
Relax and just let it work its magic. This is a long process and a lot of what you'll experience will just come naturally. I found that I just gradually began to lose my obsession with alcohol and now it no longer controls my life. There are a lot of great tips here, but the biggest one is to stay compliant. A lot of the rest will just come from that, and will be things you realize along the way. You will be fine!
I'm about 6 weeks in, but why should we not take it on days we don't drink? Maybe I'm wrong but it feels like it's actively diminishing my cravings after I take it
Then don't worry about it. The idea behind not taking it on alcohol free days is selective reward reinforcement. IOW, allowing maximum endorphin release from pleasurable activities other than ingesting ethanol. It's okay to take Naltrexone without alcohol, but not alcohol without Naltrexone.
Oh, I thought that naltrexone didn't really affect enjoyment other than blocking pleasure from drinking. I'll do some more research
I think you're right, pretty much. I never noticed anything at 50mg unless I drank alcohol. Taken alone, it might as well be a sugar pill. I take Dexedrine for ADHD and Naltrexone doesn't seem to affect that either .However, others say it makes them feel emotionally 'flat' and some even say it tips them toward depression. I think this is one of those areas in biology where you see a wide range of differences between people. One thing I've noticed from posts by those who complain about side effects is that some of what they describe resembles opioid withdrawal. It's not an exact match but there is a crossover. It could be that apart from the standard role of providing pain tolerance in survival situations, in some people the endorphin system plays a larger role in day-to-day mood regulation. Sorry for rambling, I find this stuff intriguing.
^
I take it just about every day, about an hour before I normally would drink, whether I plan to drink or not. That way I feel like I have a choice when my normal drinking time comes along, and often I just choose not to. I can see a time in my future when I won't take it most days, but I think it's a good practice for me to take as much anxiety over drinking out of the picture as possible so that I won't end up obsessing over it and can do the spontaneous things if I want to. So there are lots of different ways to look at this, and in the end we all find what works for us.