Well my time is up here at the sober house and I will be moving back home (by myself) this Thursday.  While I am excited about getting out of here and a couple of the irritating people residing here, I am a little apprehensive about the move.   I suppose maybe because I have past my 90 day mark and this has been the time when complacency, idleness, attitude and just plain boredom caused me to relapse in the past.  So what am I telling myself and doing for myself so this time will be “different?”

For starters, I do have a better feel for my body/mind than I did in the past.  I do know that there will be times of doubt, feelings of worthlessness, worries about the future, etc.  The key is to acknowledge them and try to change the subject and scenery to avoid “giving up.”  Another thing is to stay busy and stay connected with friends.  I have met a few cool people in the program and I need to make use of my phone when I am feeling off and do something positive and social with them. Also, I am going to continue to volunteer to stay busy.

Finally, I am going to keep up with my Campral schedule and seek out Naltrexone this week.  From what I have read, Campral and Naltrexone together has worked wonders for people.  At this point, I really need all the help I can get: lifestyle changes, therapy/AA and medication.  While Campral addresses the GABA issue in recovery, Naltrexone is supposed to work to negate the effect alcohol has on the pleasure center of the brain.   So if one has a slip in recovery, Naltrexone has been show to decrease the liklihood of having a full blown nasty relapse (like I have had).   There is a lot of controversy in AA about pills.  In fact I was at a meeting at Hazelden where they brought it up.

My take on that is that the “establishment” has a lot to lose if there is an effective medical treatment for alcoholism.  There is so much money being made, people employed and religion supported in recovery.  It is natural to fear something like this.  My take on it is that my concern is my recovery.  I am going to try everything to make it work.  This includes all modalities.  So I apologize to AA, but your argument that a pill is not a panacea leaves out an important part of the argument.  Meetings alone are not panaceas.  95% of people going to AA relapse in the first year.  So I do agree that there is not cure-all.  But maybe just maybe a combination of everything might be better than just one method.

So that’s my plan and I am sticking to it.  If anyone reading this had experience on Naltrexone, Campral or the combination–let me know.  This should be interesting