I tried to keep up a daily journal tracking the effects and also my personal/emotional issues (I’m going through some very trying times with my wife because of my binging). I’m not ready to share the personal stuff but I did want to share the Kudzu effects in hopes that it might help someone. My journal recap is below.

Tuesday April 24th
I’ve decided to write a daily journal to track my progress while taking the Kudzu herbal supplement (Kudzu Recovery by Planetary herbals. I read the Kudzu Full Spectrum was better but I couldn’t find it at my local vitamin shops) . To recap, I started taking the Kudzu about a week and a half ago but not consistently. I did notice a difference in my response to alcohol since I started taking it, it’s difficult to explain, but my need to continuously put a drink up to my lips was not there. I still over drank two of the days but it seemed to take a lot longer to get to the point of irrationality where I compulsively keep drinking. Also, the buzz effect I get sometimes even after one drink was not there. I didn’t take the Kudzu consistently, even missed days, so I’m hoping to test these next two weeks taking it as they say, 2 pills after breakfast, 2 pills after lunch. I took it yesterday and I have noticed one of the side effects is that I don’t digest meals as quickly. It’s not quite heartburn, but like the food sits in your stomach. I had trouble sleeping and had stomach cramps in the middle of the night. I’m hoping this isn’t regular. I’m going to try to eat lighter at night to help alleviate.

3 weeks later – Tuesday May 15th.
It has been three weeks since I started taking Kudzu. The good news is I’ve only over drank 3 times, which might sound like a lot but this is good for me. I’ve drank at cookouts, restaurants, home, and a soccer game and can honestly say that the urge to overdrink was greatly diminished. I have not been as consistent as I’d like taking the 2 pills after meals twice a day but the effects still remained. The only real side effect I have felt is indigestion, gas and a bloated feeling, like I’m not fully digesting. But I have been taking some Gas-ex and that seems to do the trick.
I’m going to keep taking it for the next two weeks and see how my drinking is affected. It is not a magic pill, you still make the choice to drink or over drink, and there does seem to be a line I crossed on the 3 times I over drank, but I can honestly say it has changed the “need” to keep putting a drink to my lips.

Last Call is no magic bullet, that’s for certain, but I find lately that in social situations I can easily limit myself to 1-2 drinks. But then again, social drinking was never my problem. If I’m alone, bored or in emotional distress, I’m still very prone to polishing off a bottle of wine just as a distraction — kudzu or no kudzu. So buyer beware. I’m traveling at the moment but when I get back in a couple of weeks I plan to see about trying baclofen. See “The End of My Addiction” by Olivier Ameisen http://www.olivierameisen.com/en.

Had a brainwave today and decided to google, ‘can you buy a tablet to stop drinking’ and found your posts.

It feels like I have found a load of mates in ten minutes, so much sounds so familiar.

I was brought up in the North East of England, hard drinking men coming home to beat up women was the norm. At 15 I was going out to nightclubs but had to drink martini with a friend first, just like my sister before me.

These days, I have a stable family life, but do drink over a bottle of wine every evening (between around 5 and 9.30 – then I like to sleep!! I just love sitting after all jobs done and just watching crap telly and slogging that wine back. Most of my friends do the same and i believe that it is this new culture in Britain, my sister killed herself when she had been drinking, I loved her so much. We’d had a rubbish upbringing and she could never really accept the cruelty that people do, she was too good for this world I believe.

Now I think after reading all your posts that I am going to try Naltroxine, ideally i want to drink only at weekends but would love to be able to just have two glasses of wine, dream on.

I went to al-anon years ago for families of alcoholics (dad was a rager), I went to AA but decided I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life ‘not drinking’

I know I drink far too much and it is affecting my quality of life to say nothing of my gorgeous girl who knows her mum gets ‘tipsy’.

Bugger, what a pain it is, truth is if it wasn’t for my girl, I’d happily drink whenever, WRONG ATTITUDE!!

When I stop drinking (last time 3 weeks last year), I don’t get any symptons but it just gets boring not doing it.

If anyone knows what I’m on about, I’ll be really interested to hear from you. Lovely chatting

I was wondering if there was anything in taking Kudzu at different times of day? I wasn’t getting anything from it when taking it in the morning, but ‘I think’ when I took it after lunch I might have had an effect later on. This is from the point of view of an evening drinker.

Thank you!