I was in the sober house for 8 months but once when we went to the gym I bought a beer and took a couple sips then threw it out. And on Christmas break I drank a bottle of vanilla extract. So really the longest I ever went sober is 100 days I’d say. Right now I’m 53 days sober so more than half way there! The longest I ever went previously not in an institution was 33 days when I started naltrexone then I smoked weed once, went 25 days more til I started drinking again, then I drank moderately til I decided to quit. So I’m doing good! One day at a time though.
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I would try antabuse because you seem very smart and motivated.
It makes you sick as hell if you drink at all on it. I mean it is reserved for the very, very motivated problem-with-drinking patients, and you seem to be one.
How would it feel to say maybe drink once a year with some friends, just one big tall beer or a margarita, and not drink otherwise? Well that doesn’t happen with real alcoholism, and it isn’t worth living a repeat of failed attempts to quit.
I say gather up your motivation, get something going to keep you busy, and then try antabuse. You will need to be seen to by a doc, it is just a suggestion to ask the doc about- because it exists for cases like yours.
Well done JJ, you continue to impress the hell out of me.
@mortimermouse asks a good question and it leads me to my own question. Are you intending to never touch alcohol again or are you aiming to get to a point where it is no longer a problem for you to have one drink with friends?
I’m not sure about the aims of AA and whether they really push never drinking again or just teaching self control around alcohol.
Naltrexone is way better than Anabuse. No offense mouse but I don’t consider anabuse an ethical treatment. And the thing about naltrexone, you can drink 2 beers on it but then it makes you sick (but not deathly sick like anabuse), but once you quit drinking after drinking on naltrexone, just the idea of alcohol almost makes you hurl. I haven’t had a craving since July 2nd. Naltrexone works sooo well, especially now that it’s fully in my system. When I first started it wasn’t fully in my system. But 8 months of taking it everyday it’s in full force now. I don’t need anabuse.
1 is too many 1000 is never enough they say
I can drink 2 beers a week on naltrexone and feel satisfied. I was already at that point. 1 beer will lead me to drugs. I don’t plan to ever drink again. But like I said its one day at a time
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Oh wait, naltrexone? You must have not drank all that heavily. Did you drink like super loads of booze at once or just keep drinking like to a .1 consistently? What I mean to ask is, what kind of drinker were you (remember that you were in terms of behaviors and are in terms of identity, if that suits you, otherwise stick with “were”)?
I cut binge drinking out when I got on antipsychotics.
A person doesn’t show up at AA unless he or she is scared of what the drinking is doing to him or her. They’re sick and tired of being sick and tired. What often motivates a person to go to AA is having things happen like waking up in jail and having no idea what he or she did to get put there. There is usually some kind of crisis that instigates the desire to quit - a divorce, a car wreck, beating your spouse or kids. AA has no opinion on outside issues. It’s sole purpose is to help people who want to quit to quit drinking.
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Before antipsychotics I was 16 beers a night black out drinker 5x a week
Then when I got on abilify it cut it in half (2-3 times a week, half the amount)
Then naltrexone I was 2-4 beers a week, but it still lead me to doing drugs.
Now naltrexone+aa I’m sober 
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Well done! Alcohol isn’t something anyone needs to live so why not just do away with it completely.
How do you feel when you are around people who are drinking? Does it trigger you or make your evening difficult?
Makes me feel sick just thinking about it!
I sip a few beers when I visit my sister’s for dinner. I just love the taste of beer these days…it’s like a free pass to feel good…any more than four beers and I am ready to eat something and then be driven home by my girlfriend…haha…
I usually can’t afford beer though is why I only drink at my sister’s…she’s an every day drinker…I hope she doesn’t start drinking a lot…
Naltrexone is like the clockwork orange of drinking. Give them naltrexone, expose them to alcohol, then just seeing alcohol makes you sick. I’m confident I got it this time. It’s different. Although I still need aa as a refresher course but I’m not crazy about 90 meetings in 90 days, sponsor, etc… Just yet.
At work I have to approve medical treatment for people who have been injured at work. So a lot of medical certificates I use to make those determinations recommend the use of codeine as an analgesic. Yesterday I dealt with a review of medication for someone who is getting various doctors to prescribe high amounts of codeine.
Our doctor at work had had a conversation with the employees doctor about it and now we have to take action on it. I understood what was probably happening with this employee and I felt for them, but at the same time it was really difficult for me because I was seeing just how easy it is to get even higher amounts of codeine than I was using and made me want it all the more.
It’s like I’m constantly reminded of codeine at work. It kind of sucks.
My friends been on the vivitrol shot since November 2014 and hasn’t used opiates since (heroin). Vivitrol is naltrexone in injection form FYI
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I must say my dreams of being a therapist is an adherrant to the idea of getting high.
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Its too late for me to go back to weed
If you take a long break from weed (especially if you’re sz), the first time back you will get soooo paranoid it’s not fun at all. The idea of weed repulses me for that reason. Then you adjust if you smoke like 5 times consecutively and don’t get as paranoid but def don’t recommend that 
weeds out of the picture for me at this point even tho I’m moving to a state it’s legal.
When I visited Washington I smoked weed twice…it was high thc but didn’t make me as paranoid…proves to me they put stuff in the weed on the black market…because legal weed didn’t cause as much paranoia despite being so potent.
I’m not sure how I feel about antabuse. Sure you get really sick when you drink alcohol but it doesn’t resolve the underlying addiction. I think the relapse rate when you stop taking it is fairly high because people fall back into their old ways once they realize they won’t get sick anymore.
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Well, whatever works for you, works for you. These days, motivational interviewing and harm-reduction are the tools of formally fixing alcohol abuse most of the time. AA actually has a bad track record for most people, but one must respect when it does work.
I found drinking to be just a painkiller, just anesthesia myself.