I started on selincro eight weeks ago. I was drinking on average, two bottles of 14% wine every night and a bottle of spirits and beer at weekends. On special occasions I usually drink only spirits and get absolutely wasted. After Christmas and New Year, I became concerned about my health and had a full medical in February. It showed no apparent damage to my health from drinking. (Liver function, cholesterol etc all normal). However, I recognised that I was pushing my luck and needed to cut down if not stop completely.
I considered AA, but I don't believe in a higher power, so that wasn't a runner. By chance I heard about naltrexone/nalmefene and approached my GP for a prescription. It's not cheap, but then neither is my drinking habit!
I started two months ago today, took my first tablet and continued on drinking as prescribed. Apart from nausea, dizziness, insomnia for about the first two weeks, the side effects were no worse that my usual withdrawal symptoms. I still craved a drink when I came in from work and usually gave in and had a few drinks. Gradually I noticed that I wasn't that bothered if I didn't finish the bottle and by the end of the first month I was no longer drinking spirits. By week six I could go a day at a time alcohol free. This past week, the only alcohol I have had is three glasses of wine last Wednesday, drunk at a civilised pace over the course of the evening. Last night, Friday night, when I would typically have had half a bottle of gin or rum AND two bottles of wine, I shared a bottle with my wife and was perfectly content to stop at that.
So for those of you who have started on nalmefene or similar keep going, it's worth it!
For those of you who have tried everything else, give it a go, you have nothing to lose and gain the chance of getting your life back.
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Great to hear of yet another success story with The Sinclair Method. This really IS by far the best chance people have of resolving an alcohol problem with a 78% success rate (in Finland) compared to less than 10% success rate for traditional methods of treatment.
Thanks for the post. Good to hear how it's going for someone two months on.
I'm just about two weeks in and I have to say the subtleties of Selincro have taken me by surprise. For anyone wondering if you will still enjoy alcohol, you will. Or I am anyway. But whilst I am enjoying it the drinking monster as I call it, has been quietened. I'm no longer constantly thinking about the next drink but instead enjoying the one I have and the company I am in. The other night drinking alone I had two ready mixed G&Ts then half a bottle of red with dinner. Due to a heavy workload that week I was exhausted - and so I went to bed! This would never have happened before. I would have previously forced myself to stay up and finish the bottle. Sometimes then opening a second bottle and likely falling asleep on the sofa.
None of the reduction in my alcohol intake has been due to willpower, I have drank as much as I want but it is very gradually reducing.
I still grave it at the end of the day or during any of the other triggers. Those are strong habits and it will take a long time to break them. I'm positive if I carry on with Selincro though that even those habits will break eventually.
Hi Paul. Not been here for a bit. Hope you are ok. I have really cut down on my drinking and it is still a battle. Went to a party yesterday. It was great and I did well. Went home and went to my bedroom and slept. No one is here today and I have had a
few drinks. Hiding it again really. Doing my jobs at home but
the drink is keeping me going, I feel like a child at Easter hiding their Easter eggs.
Without Nalmefene (Selincro), it is a battle. You are relying on will power and it sounds like you are doing very well but if you could get Nalmefene, the willpower requirement would be removed.
Glad to read that you are doing well too! Today I was treated to lunch for Father's Day by my daughter. Took a selincro this morning. Had a shared bottle of wine and no desire to stop off for more on the way home, (which would always have been the case in the past).
On a personal note, I am finding that even though selincro helps with the cravings, I still need willpower to deny myself that first drink. After that, I'm ok.
Tomorrow I won't drink, I will go to the gym or go for a walk after work. And then early to bed!
Hi. Just had a bottle of wine. Only drank once in 6 months but needed the buzz! My doctor never heard of nalmefene and won't prescribe it. So where can I get it from and any advice on what to do ?
She said you can ask alcohol advisory service but my friend says she meantioned it to them and they don't know about it either. So how can I get hold of it? Help..
Thank you for the advice. Ive been drinking heavily for about 4 years. Every night. Strong lager or real ale. It does become a habit. The body kind of gets used to strong beer (thats the misconseption). The brian gets used to the strong beer stimulation but the internal organs do not. That is why my liver function tests have not been good. Alcohol is a poison so has caused me many abdominal problems. The endoscopy was not a good experience. Still, the brain loves the buzz that alcohol brings. If only the liver had the same opinion.
I haven't been on this forum for a while but wanted to share my Selincro experience, I have been taking it for some time now and having a mixed response. It has definitely made an enormous difference to my 'normal' drinking. I think I have at least halved the amount I drink when I am at home on a drinking night - that is between Thursday and Sunday for me. Where I haven't noticed a big difference is when I go out - I still seem to have the same desire to keep on when I really should stop, not sure how this will work out over time. I will definitely carry on with selincro though.
Sorry to ready that you are having a bad time of it. I cannot understand how your doctor doesn't know about nalmefene/selincro. All her or she has to do is Google it. The other version is called naltrexone.
I haven't had an opportunity to test how well I am doing in a social setting yet. I am not a regular pub goer so it's not an issue.
I have a big challenge coming up next week, I am going away for a week on our annual family holiday. I am a nervous traveller at the best of times and regardless of the time of the flight I usually have a couple of large gins to 'settle my nerves' and then a few more on the flight to keep them settled! This means that I am wasted on arrival at the holiday destination, with all the consequences of that. Then it's the same on the way home. I will see if I can get through this flight without my 'liquid medication'.
I am coming to the conclusion that the tablets only help remove the desire to drink, but they don't completely remove it. The problem for all of us drinkers is that we like doing it, we like 'the buzz', the 'warm glow' but we all know that alcohol isn't doing it for us any more. All we have been doing is poisoning ourselves and ruining our lives.
This is where I think willpower comes in, at some point we will have broken the cyle of binge/withdrawal and we can choose to stop. At the moment all I am experiencing is not drinking as much as I used to, but I still want to drink.
Ultimately I would like to stop completely, but that is a long way off I think.
All habits are hard to crack, but if you feel that the special brew is damaging your health, it might be an idea to do something about it. I had been drinking heavily for 40 years. I ignored my drinking, classic denial story. 'I wasn't that bad', 'it hasn't affected my job' etc. But I had a couple of home truths told to me by my wife and daughter over Christmas and I had to try to get off it somehow. I am still not off it completely but I am getting there. I am trying to replace drinking with healthy habits. It's not easy, but I feel that I am moving forward a little every day and that's all that matters at the moment.
At least with beer you are doing less damage than with wine or spirits, so it will be possible to wean yourself off it with nalmefene/selincro. Then maybe you can rewind to when you just enjoyed a few and stopped at that.