It’s been such a treat to wake up clear every morning and not to have to spend a few hours just trying to be ready to start the day. The two first mornings I slept about 13 hours to make up for the nights where I must not have had the right kind of sleep.
Besides more productive mornings, I am also getting so much more done in the evenings. My days are not ending nearly as early as they used to. After a week, I’m already seeing a great difference in my office and no longer feeling like I will never get caught up with life. It really looks like I can do it!
I am gratefully using the aids that are finally available to us in 2007. The “Big Book” says that “physicians . . . agree that there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn’t done so yet.”
Although they are not able to totally accomplish “making a normal drinker” out of us (me), both Campral/Acamprosate and Naltrexone sure come close.
A month or so ago, I decided to quit taking Campral (Acamprosate) since I had taken it for a while, but was still drinking–not to the point of passing out or a black-out, like I had been, but still more than was healthy. Just a few days after starting to cut back on the pills, I drank more than I had for a long time. So, Campral will stay a part of my program for a while more. I was also wondering about Naltrexone (Revia). My usual time to take it is every morning, but somewhere, maybe on another blog, someone said it was best to take it closer to the usual craving time. I have been doing that this week and have had no cravings in the late afternoon/early evening time-the only time that is a problem for me.
So yeah, I know that I’m using crutches, but after 35 years of drinking too much, thank God that science has now “accomplished this.” Let’s make use of it!!
I started going to The Meeting in my area after I got out of treatment. The hostess/welcomer for the evening said that this was a meeting for those that refused to take anything that affected us “from the neck up.” Besides Campral and Naltrexone that “Science” has now provided us with, there are so many of us that have self-medicated because of not having been properly diagnosed or understanding other things that were happening with us “above the neck” that now have treatment possibilities. There is no good reason for us to deny ourselves the scientific progress that has occurred since the 1930s and 40s. I’m sure that Dr. Bob and Bill W. would have been open to whatever could help. Even with AA, the stats are dismal.
My hope and current program is to use these medications to make sure that if and when I do drink, it is so minimal and rare, that I will taper down, even more than I have, and my body will no longer notice, and I will no longer expect it emotionally or psychologically. Then, I will cut back on the meds. and it will no longer be an expectation.
That is not all. There are many other tools and resources that are helping a lot.
More later.
Please comment. This is my plan. It very well may not work. But I’m giving it a try.