Just started using Selincro

Good start for sure!

There is often what is called a honeymoon effect, which is that your drinking may drastically reduce in the beginning week or two before (perhaps) increasing again after that. This may not happen but if it does do not worry. This is what is called the 'first blocking' effects of the tablet and if it happens, then remember it is normal for many people.

After the first couple of weeks and you have settled in to using the tablet and being compliant, start chipping around any habitual drinking - this means that you are working with the tablet and it will help you to change things in the long run.

Consider this to be similar to tablets that can be prescribed to help someone lose weight.... they work well but any long term weight reduction is much more successful if that person learns to eat better and maker healthier choices about what/when and how they eat.

This is a very similar thing.

Look forward to hearing more from you over the coming weeks and hopefully you will check in often to update us all after then too.

Also, you may find reading this reassuring and it shows the up and down nature of this treatment. The main thing is to stay compliant no matter what.

This guy started nalmefene mid January and through the ups and downs, here is where is now.

sounds like a good start for you.I myself couldnt take the first side effects,threw up after the first tablet and went to bed,didnt even drink.Felt so ill for at least a day.Now im on naltrexone

Hi there,

I think sharing your experience will make a very interesting read so I will be following you and send you lots of best wishes and support!!

It will also be interesting to see how you find you improve as the days go on.

All the best

Claire xx

Many thanks for the replies everyone 😃

I should have added, on Friday after tablet 1 and the 2 glasses of red, I actually felt really nauseous and I had to run to the loo. I vomited up the red I had drank. Note however I hadn't eaten much. It didn't bother me re. vomiting it up and took it as a positive sign my body just wanted rid of the booze.

Day 2.

I took the 2nd tablet at 4pm. Felt fine. I was still a bit tired from the crappy sleep on Fri eve. I wasn't hungry all day so I again took the tablet on pretty much an empty stomach. I know others here have said to always eat beforehand but I just had zero appetite.

The main thing I have noticed is Selincro, in the first 2 days, make me feel queasy mainly. But nothing major at all.

My friend was due for dinner at 7.30. I did find at around 5/6pm my brain was saying "Hey where's the usual white wine?" however at the same time I just felt somewhat repulsed at the idea of opening up the bottle of red I had bought for dinner. I was looking at it on the counter sort of thinking: "That stuff is poison, think how good you feel right now, if you go there, that will all change"... I was somewhat 'scared' of it. Sounds mad, but I guess I am just sick to the back teeth of the effects alcohol has on me now and how it turns me into someone I really don't like.

I did pour a glass around 7, but whenever I took a sip I just felt sick. All I could taste was the alcohol and it was doing literally nothing for me. It was utterly bizarre for me. The red wine had no flavour, just sharp, pure alcohol. Sipping it did absolutely zero for me mentally. It just made me feel sick.

When my friend arrived, he had a glass of wine and I just had a water. We talked for an hour whilst dinner was cooking and I kept wanting to have a glass but all I could think about was how vile it tasted earlier.

During dinner I poured a glass and I found with the food, I was able to tolerate it more. All in all I had 2 glasses of red for the entire evening. No side effects. It helps I guess my friend doesn't drink a huge amount. I do think you deffo need food in you if using Selincro or anything you drink will come back up.

All in all we shared a bottle of red, and oddly I felt fine when it was gone, to watch a movie with a cup of tea. This is unknown to me on a Sat night. I'm normally crazing more booze. I felt nicely p****d/mellow and didn't miss not drinking anymore.

I slept really well last night and felt fantastic today, up early, out for brunch etc. Normally I'd be wrecked on a Sunday morning and probably, if on my own, I'd open up a bottle of white by 2pm.

I've just made a coffee and taken my 3rd tablet.

So far, as small as it is, I have noticed these tablets really do help. Shockingly so for me personally.

I do think you have to be very vigilant with them and take them as soon as you honestly think you will drink due to your habitual patterns. I found today at 1pm (I am used to lazy Sunday drinking), I was thinking of booze earlier. I poured a small glass of vino but felt disappointed at myself and popped the 3rd pill. Whenever I have sipped it, it just tastes gross. The smell of the alcohol in the wine is a real turn off.

Early days but I feel the key with this medication is to go easy on yourself if you feel like a drink. Take the tab, pour the drink and see how you go. If this can work for me, it can work for anyone. Take everything day by day and moment by moment. I feel optimistic this could really be a life saver for me when combined with councelling and I'm possibly going to start AA sessions next week. I've heard some of them are really great and great way of realising we're not dirty/sad/pathetic individuals as booze affects SO many people in so many walks of life and it's a highly addictive poison which socially is literally thrown down our gobs: left, right and centre.

X

I can't seem to work out how to edit posts on here - not sure if you can.

Just wanted to add: 4 hours later and same glass of wine is sitting there.

I have tried, in vain, to drink it.

It is literally doing nothing for me other than making me feel like crap.

Sick in stomach, flushed face, tastes revolting.

I just chucked it and the bottle down the sink.

I am finding this drug utterly amazing if just from the effect it has on your brain.

It's confirming the thoughts I had over the past year that I didn't even like the taste of booze.

You almost start to taste booze as you did when you tried it first as a kid. and wondered why on earth people drank it at all.

Maybe it's the choice of drink - red wine. Maybe I'll try a different tipple tomorrow and see how I feel about it and if it has same effect. Interesting to find out.

I think a key factor in starting on Selincro is to make sure you have other things to do in the time you were used to drinking. The boredom factor of taking a big part of habit over enjoyment I can see, could be a challenge.