Selincro Shortage !!!

Thanks h1954.  I was just plodding along again, complying with the medication and routine... this situation is undoing the progress.  What a palaver !!!

Angel 🎇

Thanks, Paper fairy.  I am feeling good about it all, again.

Ever onward...tablet, then time... then tipple !

Angel (mindfully) XX

Tablet, time and tipple - am I reading this right?  I thought the meds stopped the desire or that you should not mix them.

I didn't even know about this stuff till I joined on here.  Only about AA and Recovery.

Blimey Charlie - wot a hassle.

G

Yep, you are reading correctly.

Read this from this very website and it will make more sense to you.

https://patient.info/health/sinclair-method-for-alcohol-use-disorder

Joanna, thank you very much for this.  I have read it and I honestly think this is what will save me from early death.  The thought of AA and higher power does not do it for me.  I have often said that I wished that I could say, no I only want one but that seems like a lifetime ago.  I have never heard of TSM and wonder whether my doc here in the UK would even have heard of it. 

If anyone on here can clarify if it is used in GBR, please let me know and I will be armed with my info. 

When I research into a health issue I have and take the info with me to help her - she says she has learned something new as she did not know what I had found, but then they cant know everything which I understand.

Thank you all - great posts these really are.

Gwen

Selincro is approved for use by NICE/NHS in the UK.

PS This is a UK forum, even though people from many places post here.

RHGB

Thank you - appreciated.

G.

Thank you very much, Joanna.  I will note the information.  When I take my next prescription to the pharmacy, I will check the supply process.

All is well for now.

I will keep taking the tablets !

One day... I hope that I will be able to do without them... and do without alcohol... one day.

All Good Wishes,

Alonangel 🎇

I know you are not going to like what I have to say, Alon, but I am going to say it because I believe it's in your best interests.....

You love your doctor, I get that, and I suppose part of that reason is because he has given you these tablets BUT I am still completely aghast that he has given you these tablets without the mandatory additional pyschosocial support that goes alongside them.

I am seeing that you are taking the tablets and that's great, but I am not seeing him giving you any additional support to work on other aspects of your drinking and life.

I strongly feel that IF he had, and that you had been approaching this the way that it is supposed to be prescribed (a two-forked approach using the tablets AND the required counselling) then you would've been a lot further along the road to recovery than you are now.

Apart from the tablets, nothing seems to have changed in your life.

With the tablets AND the support working from both sides to tackle the problem, you really would have been further on.  Most especially when it came to handling those 3 sober weeks you had.  Left to your own devices, with no tablets because you weren't drinking, you had NO defence mechanism against what happened.  Do you see what I mean?  Taking the tablets out the equation, you had not made any changes to the rest of how you deal with life.

I'm sorry, but I don't feel your doctor has worked in your best interests here and I know you will hate me for saying that.  You NEED the additional support to work with the tablets.

These tablets will not be prescribed forever.  You are only doing half the work, and without that second half I fear that the doctor will deem them not working and eventually stop the prescription.  Without a new safety net in your life, then you have no new skills learned to deal with situations. 

Ok Joanna.  The truth hurts !  You have a lot more experience of my type of situation, than I have.  I have total respect for your judgement.

 My G.P. is the counselling side of things.  That may indeed be wrong.

I know that I should be making changes to how I deal with life.  Unfortunately, I am very reluctant to let go of my "alcohol crutch".

I may be my own worst enemy... but I blame everybody else.

What would you suggest that I do now... to become a bit proactive ?

Fallen Angel

I don't meant to hurt you, you know that I hope.

Perhaps at your next appointment with your doctor you explain that you don't feel that much has changed in your life with regards to learning new coping techniques.  That is the main thing.  The Selincro helps to eliminate your usual drinking response to trigger situations, but you need to figure another way to deal with that.

So, for example, it's like learning to have another way to release the steam when the pressure begins to build.

Alternatively, you could ask to be referred to someone who has no immediate knowledge of you (an addictions counsellor, perhaps) who would then be able to assess you and infuse some 'new' ideas and new techniques that are fresh.

Thank you, Joanna.  I know that you have my best interests at heart.  I appreciate that.  I hate facing up to the truth of it all, that is what hurts.  I can't fool all of the people, all of the time.  I am only fooling myself.

I am very embarrassed by my A.U.D.

I don't want to be seen going to counselling places... for addicts and alcoholics.  I try to maintain some kind of "front", to protect my family.

There is no easy answer.  I wish I was stronger.

Alonangel ??

But who would do the counselling? I've yet to meet someone that listens, understands, or even knows the first thing about alcohol dependency.

And by that, I mean the route you are directed down by your GP, ARCs.

Where would I go tomorrow, if I was alcohol dependent, not clued up on it and in need of help?

I wish you were able to overcome this embarrasment.  I have a very unusual surname as you may know and I always dread the idea of doing something wrong because when it's in the paper, everyone will know who it is!  So I do understand that.

But here are the options that you are facing and I am not exaggerating here.

1.  Deal with the situation now and ask if there is maybe a counsellor situated at the hospital (or anywhere else that isn't the recovery centre)

2.  You may well die and when the coroner issues the report and it gets printed in the paper, isn't it a far more excrutiatingly embarrassing though that EVERYONE gets to read that you died of either alcohol poisiong, an accident caused by alcohol poisiing, or an illness brought on by alcohol poisioning?

I know which of those 2 options I would chose.

That is for Alonangels doctor to decide.  When I am talking about counselling, I am really talking about new coping techniques, which most any counsellor will be trained to be able to provide.  It doesn't even have to be an alcohol counsellor!

Think about MIsssy's situation.  She DID find someone who gave her some excellent ideas that she implemented (the box, for example) and it worked.  Most of these are common sense anyway, but it often takes someone with a fresh eye to point them out.

The Selincro will help alonangel much, much better if she has something new to practise on in terms of dealing with her current cirumstances and triggers.

Hell, I could do it if her doctor was willing

Alonangel, how are you doing? There's a thread on Chamomile for insomnia and I thought you might like to see it:

https://patient.info/forums/discuss/chamomile-tea-525720?page=0#2234226

I am ok, ADEfree.  Taking the Selincro/Nalmefene. Drinking white wine. Reducing consumption. Slow process.

Thank you for the link, I will read it.  I'm sure I have some chamomile tea lurking at the back of a kitchen cupboard.

I hope you are well... and fighting the good fight !

Alonangel

Thanks, Alonangel! All goes well, most of my days are AF now. 

Sounds like things are better for you since we first met. Keep on going, it works. I haven't had more than 6 beers in the past 30 days and I don't miss it.