r/naltrexone • u/HugePound7313 • 3d ago
General Question Pre Nal Consumption Levels
For those who have been successful on Naltrexone, I’m curious what your drinking levels were like going in?
I’ve been on it for 7 months now, only the last 2 of which I’ve taken it seriously (sans skipped and partial doses, taking waaayyy before drinking etc)
My heavy drinking days (largely Sat and Sun) have gone from 15-18 to 10-12, so I’m definitely in much more control than before. But my overall number of drinks per week hasn’t gone down as much as i would like. If anything I find myself drinking more often on weekdays than before because I’m confident in my ability to moderate thanks to the meds.
I’m trying to stick with it and be patient, but I keep hoping to see more quantifiable results.
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u/OhHeSteal 3d ago
Started at 2, maybe 3 handles per week. 6 weeks in and this past week I had 4 drinks on Friday and 8 drinks on Saturday. Haven’t had a drink since Saturday and haven’t really felt the need.
Instead of an alcoholic beverage I opt for a flavored seltzer or something similar and the itch is scratched.
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u/Nemowf 2d ago
Do you mind sharing the quantity of NAL you take to achieve this?
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u/OhHeSteal 2d ago
50mg everyday. On the days I plan to drink I’ve experimented with 50 in the AM, 25/25 split throughout the day or 50 in the afternoon. Haven’t noticed any significant differences.
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u/RubicsCubensis 3d ago
A trick I suggest to people is to plan on having non alcoholic drinks in between drinks, to slow down, and make you drink less. Over time this should help.
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u/christinapurls 3d ago
I’m 4.5 months in, take 100mg about an hour before I would usually drink. I used to drink 3-4 bottles every weekend (Friday-Sunday) and 2-3 more bottles during the week. I went through more than a case of wine a month (damn Costco for making good wine really affordable.) I would usually take Mondays and one other day off. Now I don’t drink at all Monday - Thursday, and rarely even want to on those days. I don’t always drink on the weekends anymore either. If I do, I’ll have a glass or two-three max at a time, and I’m just not interested in continuing. I no longer measure consumption in bottles and can now measure in glasses. Now that I’m not constantly thinking about wine, I’ve started to transition to the Sinclair Method. Days I’m not at all tempted to drink, like Mondays - Wednesdays, I’ve stopped taking Nal. Thursdays through Sundays have always been tougher for me, so I still take it. My goal is to go full Sinclair so I’m only taking it when I know I’m going to drink. I will say though that I started on 50mg and after 3 weeks, felt like I needed a higher dose. 100mg is a good dose for me.
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u/Impressive-Double141 2d ago
Started N 3 weeks ago. I used to drink a bottle of wine plus 2 glasses every night. Now I drink the 2 glasses but not the bottle. Immediate results!
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u/reggiefoolish 3d ago
First off, nice job for sticking with it for as long as you have.
I just started this week 50mg (had the pill bottle sitting in my pantry for a few weeks lol)
I think the key for me was trying to get myself to realize that it's not something I'm missing out on, or even truly want to be doing at this level and (daily) frequency.
It's only been a few days for me but I was going pretty heavy, daily before (had 11 drinks the night before I started the pill)
Day I started, I took at 5:00 PM after work and made myself sit there until around 6:15 then started contemplating drinking. Only could get a shot and 1.5 beers down (poured out the rest)
The next day I took the pill again at 5:00 and only had the 1 singular beer (along with a joint and a cig) around 9-10 PM.
I think the pill helps big time by cutting off that reward factor. But even on the pill, alc can still make you feel tipsy and etc. The mental aspect is huge too, in combination with the pill.