LOL alcohol. What a horrible drug.

Does anyone have any experiences with being prescribed naltrexone to help quit drinking? I was prescribed this and I’ve taken it about 15 times before drinking. I haven’t noticed much of a cutback yet in intake.

I’m using the Sinclair method where you take 50 mg’s of naltrexone an hour before you start drinking. Apparently 80% of the people who do this either quit completely or drastically reduce their alcohol intake for good. Anybody have success or failures with this medication?

I've never tried it or even heard of it actually. The problem I see with that is that it doesn't really treat the problem, just the symptom. I drank because I was ****ed up in the head. Drinking was just a way to hide from the real problem, me. Maybe I'm wrong and they have come up with a magic pill though. If it helps, great, but you should also be looking at working on why you drink in the first place.

I take naltrexone. It certainly helps but it's not a cure. I have cut waaaaaaay down but still have my moments.

A buddy of mine gets the shot (I take the pill). It doesn't help her one bit. She's currently in rehab.....again.....and from what I hear she'll be drinking again as soon as she gets out.

Speaking of her.....it's amazing how impossible it is for a public school teacher to get fired.

I take it if I relapse, kinda curbs/kills the cravings the next day. If you're interested there is a documentary called One Little Pill - https://www.onelittlepillmovie.com/

https://mikecernovich.substack.com/p...s-non-drinkers

I haven't drank in over 18 months and this blog is spot on. It's a lot like leaving a cult, definitely don't get invited to as many parties once people find out you've stopped drinking.

That's awesome Kioshk!

Well done bro! Keep it going

Whoops, one mildly inconvenient thing happened to me.

3 years without a drop and 3 years since receiving a diagnosis of cirrhosis. I feel great. Continuing to eat a very healthy liver friendly diet.

Bloodwork has improved and I have no major symptoms of cirrhosis. My so called MELD score which is used as one factor to evaluate transplant need is 7. Which basically means no need to go on transplant list.

Major risk is eventual liver cancer. I have been having MRIs to hopefully detect that early if it happens.

I saw the specialist in May to order routine blood work and my next MRI. The gentleman in front of me speaking to the assistant had likely severe cirrhosis. His abdomen was enlarged and he was trying to arrange another procedure to drain fluid build up (ascites). This was despite having the procedure in April, he likely had retained 10 litres of fluid just in one month. He had trouble walking. He had obvious jaundice. He was fumbling with all sorts of paperwork of tests he had underwent to try to be approved to get on the transplant list. I felt very sorry for him.

And wondered if I had delayed going to the hospital 3 years ago by even a month or so if I would have been in his state.

I read your story. Glad it didn't get as bad for you as my "friend". I warned him for years about all those stories of heavy drinkers on Intervention that died in their early 30s. He didn't want to hear it. Would tell stories about drinking an entire bottle of SoCo every single night for 2 years in his late 20s. All the kid ever did was drink. It got way worse and he started drinking at work. This was around 2018. At first it was beer, but then apparently he found a way to start drinking white claws because it looked like water. I hung out with him and some of his buddies on day during the week, and he already had an empty 12 pack of white claws in his car from while he was at work. Dude literally didn't have a life outside of alcohol. This went on until 2022. Anytime he would call me at night, I would instantly know he had been drinking all day long at work.

Covid hit and things got worse. He started smoking cigarettes out of nowhere for the last 3 years to top of his crazy alcohol use. I would hang out and day drink at a bar with him on Fridays while he was working. He would get so smashed on sake he would be cut off and just disappear and DUI his way home. Amazingly he got his first ever gf in this state, but he didn't care anything about ever being with her as alcohol was more important. She broke up with him after a year and he got worse and worse. Like and idiot he still talked to her every night and put himself through more misery than he needed. I told him he just missed his toy and to man up and get over it, quit drinking and find a better chick. Nope instead he switched to vodka/red bull. Apparently he finally got written up for drinking at work. One of his friends asked if I had seen him and I said I had not. They said he was so skinny and none of his clothes fit, and they were thinking of holding an intervention. I last hung out with him in October. Gums bleeding, lips crusted, skinny, hair down below his shoulders because his ex wanted him to look like that. Some woman at the restaurant/bar that we were at just looked at him in horror.

After this I finally told him to go to rehab. One month later he disappeared and cut off all communication. Word was that he was as yellow as a sticky note, and filled with ascites at the young age of 34 years old. I called his sister to ask if she had any clue. I told her and she broke down crying. Her mom and him went to see him that morning and he told them he was dying and to leave him alone. They saw his discharge papers from the ER and all they had on there was jaundice.

Me and one of his life long friends went over to see him. What a frightening sight. Hands swollen and red, legs and ankles swollen, belly swollen, yellow as all get out, and talking like he had the flu or something. I guess the ammonia in his brain was messing with him, but he basically said not to take it personal if he didn't answer us (meanwhile he'll still snap answer his stupid ex). He said he had no desire to drink ever again as he was too afraid too. Doctors had told him that he didn't have cirrhosis but had whatever the thing before it was and an extremely scarred liver and his days of drinking were done for forever.

Anyways he hasn't answered one word in 6 months. Last I heard he was let go (basically fired) from his job but almost back to normal and on disability, but I figure it's a lot harder than that to heal your liver if even possible. I wish him well, but that sure sounds like cirrhosis to me whether he wants to admit it or not. I tried to warn the kid for years.

Don't any of you end up like this kid.

Lost a friend to it a few years back. Remember he was going to hospital every week to get 'drained' - pretty grim. He looked like Homer Simpson with his bloated belly and being bright yellow.

Celebrated 2 years off alcohol recently. I don't know any of you, but this thread was one of the starting points to me stopping, so thank you.

My life wasn't exactly awful but I feel like I'm living in a dream right now with how amazing things are. Quitting alcohol was so easy compared to the hard work of looking deep inside myself to figure out who the hell I really am. So grateful I made this change. I have amazing new friends, my work is so fulfilling, and I met the most wonderful woman that I never would have been able to connect with on this level if I was my old drunk self.

If you're considering quitting, just do it.

Five and a half years sober. Yes, this thread helped a lot, thanks! Not sure where I'd be without quitting, at least one more burden in life.

Love posts like this. So much congrats.

These too!

Thanks! Not only sunshine stories though. Already reflecting over the consumption and get in that first reduction, hopefully followed by some more, is a silver lining on the clouds. Nice to watch!

I've basically not drunk for 5 years. I quit when I did a diet (I went from 185 pounds to 140 pounds, and Ive stayed at the low weight for 5 years.)

I lost the weight in 3 months. There was no way I could hit my calorie targets whilst drinking. After 3 months dry, I found it did't interest me much any more.

I had some champagne when my Dad went in remission from cancer. And I had some cider (underwater, at 6 metres on a night dive) for my 50th. So it's not been bone dry, but pretty dry.

do you want to go to parties though?

I'm asking because my brother's best friend quit about 2-3 years ago and now when my brother will throw a party this guy will come early and hang out but will talk a decent chunk about his gameplans for it (he drinks thc soda instead) so you can see it's definitely ever present on his mind whereas if we just hanging out like normal he wouldn't be talking about what he's going to be smoking and drinking

you definitely get the feeling that it's a struggle for him and he always leaves early so you kind of wonder if it wouldn't be better to not invite him and put him through all that on the bigger instances of drinking

definitely a constant "we love this guy but are we putting him in a bad situation where he's obligated to show up out of friendship?" question

my wife is an alcoholic and takes this. Doesnt seem to work for her

are you doing it in conjunction with the Sinclair method? My wife has just started this after struggling to get results in AA.

am interested in your pov and any 1. things that might help her and 2. any watch outs/dangers?

(I erroneously posted above that she had been using Naltrexone but it was something else)

Eleven years yesterday! Absolutely bonkers that i started this thread years before getting sober, I'm very grateful to have a record of the way my mind worked back then. I have personally found that any solution that depends primarily on me figuring it out or just bearing down, etc, doesn't work for me. Whatever you want to call it, I need to cede absolute control to something else. For me, that has meant following the program of AA. 11+ years ago I was a suicidal drug addict, and now I am not, so I'm pretty happy with the results. Hope all are well

Wow congrats LFS! That's incredible, truly an inspiration.