Kudzu as a treatment for alcoholism
You’ve made the decision to cut down on your drinking. At this point, you may be wondering “is there anything that I can take that could help me with my cravings?”
Currently a few drugs are popular for the treatment of alcoholism – Naltrexone, Acamprosate, and Disulfiram. None are always effective or appropriate.
Common side effects include diarrhoea, dyspepsia (indigestion), headache, nausea and vomiting, rash, and itching. More severe side effects have been associated with these drugs which cause suspicion as to whether they are doing more harm than good.
The pharmaceutical industry has little to offer for keeping alcoholics sober. Herbal medicines, on the other hand, have shown more promising and dramatic results. However, for profiteering reasons, it is not likely that drug companies or your doctor will provide herbal alternatives.
The herb Kudzu can cut consumption of alcohol in half perfectly safely without the side effects of drugs. It has been used to reduce drinking in China since 600 A.D. Scientists have found the herb to be effective in reducing alcohol intake in rats.
Recently, studies have shown evidence that Kudzu can reduce drinking in humans. Essentially, kudzu increases blood alcohol concentration so that people need less alcohol to feel its effects. People feel satisfied on fewer drinks.
So, where can you find some? David Lee, a chemist on the McLean Hospital research team did assays on a variety of kudzu herb extracts from stores and websites and found that many of these products contained less than 1 percent of active kudzu, and thus were ineffective. Higher concentrations are needed – around 30-40 percent of one of Kudzu’s active ingredients (puerarin) is advised. Please be aware that the Kudzu capsules available in Holland & Barrett are only 7%. The tincture they sell is of course alcohol based (all tinctures are), at roughly 60% alcohol.
We’ve reviewed a number of online Kudzu suppliers, and this is the best we could find:
Or read some more information about Kudzu.
Alternatively you can try Liv.52 – a herbal supplement proven to protect the liver from the damaging effects of alcohol. It assists in the process of detoxification also, in that it speeds up the elimination of acetaldehyde (which means your hangovers won’t be quite so nasty).
hi jen
am doing ok so far.. managed a whole week without booze
seems kind of strange its friday night i am at home and not out and about binge drinking
it did help to read all those posts last weekend and to see that i am not on my own.and i am determant to bring my life back onto the right path without booze.
on monday i went to see my doc about my depression and the drinking. she put me back on anti depressents and refered me to counseling. the same eve my ex husband text me and said i always can talk to him … bl bla bla and he always there to help. silly as i was i told him. how lonely i feel , how much i miss my family and that i find it hard that i lost his family ( they dont really speak to me and i dont to them) after i have know them since 17 years.his reply was … thats what happens if you push people away and be nasty …. funny thing is i wasnt nasy and i didnt push them away,he just puts the blame on me no matter what… 2 weeks ago i would have bursted out crying and would have ended up drinking as if there is no tomorrow. i have kept his text.. everytime i feel like drinking i read it … to remind myselfe I CAN DO IT AND I AM A BETTER PERSON THEN HIM..
hope everyone else is ok and going strong . chin up and keep smiling
ela xx
hi
i do find saturdays the hardest, it feels like the rest of the world is out there enjoying themselves and i am inside with my cloudy lemonade and the cats being boring. Although i didn’t go out that much when i was drinking, but i was drinking so i did not need to go out i had my friend!!!
anyway well done ella!! unfortunately sometimes the person that we would like to support us is emotionally unavailable to us so we need to find real support somewhere else. I hope that you can find a friend or a website to help you to stay stopped.
glad to hear you are ok FH from where i am sitting NOW i am now truely amazed at what you have achieved and for so long. I know if i had half a chance I would drink again(well that is how i feel at the moment) i know it is early days and i am just waiting for this feeling of deprivation to pass. Have things improved in my life? I would say yes they have, there are less rows, i feel less anxious, I am sleeping well (for eight hours every night) but I still get twitchy at 6pm and still feel like drinking
how are you doing Jen? hope you are still managing to stay stopped. It would be nice if erica and dairy and the others came back from time to time
hugs
katie xx
Katie you sound GREAT!
I can say that it was easy for me to not drink because I was scared TO drink more than anything else. I admitted always that my life, well what there was of it, was sad and lonely. I sat in on every night of the week and if I made it up past midnight WOW COOL! At 7am I was walking the dogs and then it all started again.
I desperately missed the excitement and still do. It is Saturday and I was just actually asked out by this bloke I know who we know in passing but I know he likes to party and I just made a lame excuse. Reason being that I want to give my body time again since the Naltrexone and my little cheat. The cheat actually threw me. It is strange but they say the more toxic your body the less toxins bother you and the less toxic your body the more toxins bother you. Like you ever go on holiday with a mate who NEVER drinks and she goes wild and ends up sick (not just from the liquor) but with fever, aches, chills etc. Yet you drank 20X the amount and feel great. I think the concept is the same for me.
I know from times I have abstained before that when I go back I always feel worse longer. This time it is just a tummy upset but it is enough to make me say I will wait. For me Naltrexone is going to be, as is drinking, for special occassions. It does mean at some point I am also going to have to learn to live a somewhat more normal life without alcohol. The other thing was that my complexion was glowing and I want that back
))))
Give it time and remember it is not a never again proposition. You will get there and be ok and if you get there and are ok without alcohol all the better.
Am proud of you all!
PS Ela—when I was very young I got married and his mother told me I was the daughter she never had and no matter what she always wanted contact with me. When we got divorced he told me what a horrible person she thought I was. Opinions and a-holes!
hi
yea FH I can verfy jealous a-holes!! when I divorced my ex he made such a mess that none of his brothers or their families spoke to me or my kids for years. I am an only child and both of my parents are dead so my kids grew up effectively without any family around except me. I used to get really uset about things but i now realise that the ex was just an insecure , jealous a-hole that got of on the power of controlling who spoke to who.
Ela what he is saying is his stuff and it is about his insecurities, just let it wash over you, soon you will get to a place of clarity and see his comments for what they are!!! Unfortunately like Jen it is sometimes difficult to see exactly the kind of person you are in a relationship with until you have left them and there is a bit of space between you, then you look back and wonder how you stayed for so long……….i am not advocating that you leave your husband but just try to put space between his words and your well being. and remember sometimes people say things without having pure intentions of the effect.
well FH you are still in a place that i would like to be so i hope you stick around cos i want to be in that place where i know i will take naltrexone only sometimes and can live my life mostly af………..it seems like another world at the moment i still feel like i am in a waiting room, but when i read your posts i am feeling slightly less resentful of being af forever, so i think there is a slight shift, but it is happening slowly, guess i will just have to be patient.
hugs to you all xx
katie
Katie-
I can relate to the resentfulness. I was bitter many times I stopped this last time the 3 months I was just happy and relieved. The Naltrexone gave me hope but I really wanted to be careful and in the end was not as careful as I should have been but other than a bit more dosh spent on booze and feeling a bit less well I learned my lesson. Fortunately I am told this is a common thing on the Sinclair Method that people will postpone or allow themselves a night off, some only to find a month later they are worse than before. So I count my blessings.
Ela your ex sounds passive-agressive. My mother is like that. It is like—you are so ok honey, don’t worry, now if you were just not such an awful monster, kiss kiss. It is classic mind control. They tell you all these nice things then somewhere in the midst bite you with the mean. For people with low self-esteem already it is an easy trap.
As for me, I am about to be an orphan. I am on the verge of actually making a monumental decision to write and ask my family to stay out of my life entirely and permanently. It is not like we have had a great relationship and I ran from them as a teen and never really turned back not seeing them for 15 years and then reuiniting and realising that I am consumed with hate and anger from the relationship. It is still always on “their” terms and I still feel like an abused child around them. It is not a decision I am taking lightly because at the same time I am making some other major decisions for myself. It is just something I feel I need to do because I do not want to lash-in anymore and sometimes you have to know when a fight is not worth fighting.
Anyway it is a sunny Sunday, my house is completely cleaned, my dogs are walked and I want to go take some sun!
Hugs to All!
wow kat and ella, you guys are doing good! hopeless, great also that you picked yourself up right away and said, no no, not gonna go bingeing. you stopped yourself, you used your brain and now are back on track- very amazing.
Ella, your ex sounds like my current boyfriend, he acts like im this nasty person causing all olf thse problems. hes crazy, controlling, manipulative, possessive, an alcoholic pretty much himself. puts the blame on me no matter what as well. another thing we have in commen, I to started my zoloft again… bc even when im af for awhile, i still have depression and i just feel like how can i live with feeling sad and anxious and worrying without drinking? so i jujst gave in and started taking it again ( didnt want to take it bc im aware of the side effects plus last time i came off of it i had depression much worse for awhile, insomnia, etc, for about two or three months as part of the withdrawel from it, and i really hate dealing with that. id rather not be on anything, but i really truly want to change my life, i want to be happy, want to help the alcohol problem as much as i can. the other weird thing thats coming back when i stop drinking is my binge eating disorder! i cant believe it. that whole start eating and stuff my face, feel out of control, cant stop, like eating all night non stop.. until ifeel sick but do not actually throw up. its an actual eating disorder and it just amazes me that i go from one problem to the next.. its me trying to push my sadness away through alcohol, but when im not doing that, i go to the next option-food. so thats another reason i started zoloft, i heard it helps, and i already feel better being on it. the binging has happened about once a week really bad. usually on the weekends whene veryone around me is drinking and its new to me and i then go to food. i honestly think that this would probably stop its just that im not used to dealing with watching everyone around mne drinking and how i want to so bad.. like saturday at my bfs house, it sucked so bad..i didnt knw most of his relatives and the ones I did know i feel uncomfortable around, and most of them were drinking my fav-wine.. all day. including my bf. i had to sit around and watch it. i got so frusted and started stuffin my face all day. my bf was getting real drunk and began just not acknowledging i was even there. so i left and went to target to get away from it all. lol walked around the store for two hours. it was a big rough. this is just two weeks for me now AF. but its true, addicts usually have underlyinbg emotional issues they need to deal with as well as the substance they are addicted to. therapy , antidpressants if necessary, etc are definitely needed.
i know its early that im AF , but its funny how sometimes i feel good and other times its hell, like the times when ur around people drinking. but other times like the morning after a good night sleep, getting your coffee, driving, you feel great and are happy you havent slipped up and drank. before the mornings were the worst while drinking, the nights were the best.. now its the opposite! hehe. well, im gonna get back to my show.. everyonje keep writinjg, and keep up the good work!
by the way hopeless, your so lucky you live in florida, its 30 degrees here in NY. i absolutely hate not being able to take a long walk on the beach, through the forest, those things really help your mind, help in these times.
Jen I am freezing now as we have had a cold front and it has dropped to about 23 (74) during the day and 11 (50′s) at night. Sorry I am not so familiar with Fahrenheit anymore. In the morning I bundle up to walk my dogs as I do at night. In the day when the sun is out I am ok and deal with it better. I definitely would not want to be in your weather! It is bad enough thinking about my pending trip to UK!
Ela and Jen—have you ever thought you are addicted to men? Just throwing that out there, especially for you Jen because you seem like I always was—always had to have a bloke. Ela go rid of hers he just seems to be an arse!
As for picking myself up, it was not so much using my head it was really just still the fear. I knew I could not let myself go back to that “place” and I knew I had a tool, Naltrexone, that would let me drink if I wanted so I was much more able to stop it in its tracks this time.
BTW I finally had a great night sleep! Jen I know you can appreciate this! I fell asleep around midnight and would have slept through 9am but for some stupid landscapers that started at 8. Even my dogs did not wake me, it was great! I actually feel happier!
Anyway have not drank since my Naltrexone expirement and little mishap trying to cheat on it so that is a plus too! I think allmy drinking days now are going to be few and far between and only when I have popped a little trusted Naltrexone pill! It does feel nice to have control over my life. Now if I only could click my heels together like Dorothy and be back in Europe I would be happy! I am very seriously considering it, especially as I am not working as I could rent my place out here and with the declining euro and pound could easily move back to either UK or somewhere on the Continent and rent a small place using my rental income for some income for the time being. It is not like jobs here are easy to come by. I look daily at Monster and it is getting worse and worse! Freelance is dead as of now though I have a pending project. Moving back I am most worried about my dogs as I cannot put them in the hold it will kill me I will be on an 11 hour flight from hell worrying that they are hysterical. Vets do not tranqulise anymore either as it is bad for the dogs equilibrium.
We will just see! Well since I am poor and unemployed may as well go enjoy the day!
Hugs to all and speak soon!
Hi, just been reading through most posts and hope you don’t mind if I explain my situation as although my family are supportive, they have never had an alcohol problem and have no idea what I am currently going through.
I have been a problem drinker for about 14 years now but only after seeing a Dr recently found out how much serious damage I had done. I was admitted for detoxification on 20th Oct due a fatty liver and managed to go three weeks without a drink! Being naive and feeling very positive I thought that that was it and I no longer would ever want to drink; very, very stupid of me.
I have been staying with my parents on and off now for about 2 months as my partner just could not cope with my behaviour. On more than one occassion I have locked him out of our flat at night, causing him to sleep in the corrider; needless to say he was not happy and I still wonder why he still wants to be with me.
After the three weeks of managing to not have a drink it was decided that he would let me go and stay with him for four days. The first three were fine. On the fourth however, he had to go to work leaving me alone in the flat. It was at this point where I thought that just one or two glasses would not hurt, he would never find out, and so went to the shop and bought just the one bottle with the plan of throwing it away after the two glasses (which of course did not happen!) This led into binge drinking for four days and I am now back at my parents again which at times is driving me insane. They will not let me out of their sight for one minute and I am now feeling depressed again. I have not had a drink since Friday and have no desire to have one right now, but am constantly thinking of ways to escape to the nearest shop and buy a bottle if I do start craving.
Any ideas on ways to cope with cravings would be much appreciated as I have no idea how I will manage at Christmas and New Year.
Sorry to go on, I just need some support!
DJ x
Hi DJ-
Well I can relate! I am not sure how many of my posts you have read but I can say that I always buy a bottle intending on having a couple of glasses and usually 8+ days later I have been drinking 24/7, my life and the flat are messes and I have to deal with the detox and aftermath.
Fatty liver is relatively minor damage, good time to slow down. I have written a lot about the Sinclair Method as that is what has finally worked for me if I am honest. I have no good advice how to stop cravings, I used to get the “desire” to have a drink but unless I was not “detoxed” I never had cravings per se.
MY BEST advice is ask your GP for a shot of Naltrexone. This will make drinking blase and you will get bored doing it. That is what the Sinclair Method is based on—namely taking that instant pleasure we get away. I take the tablets but mainly because I made the error of moving to USA and have no insurance and can only get the tablets and only via internet. In UK just as USA they will tell you this is for abstinence but actually according to David Sinclair, the founder of Sinclair Method, it is more for moderation with an eventual hope of extinction of the repeated drinking.
I know the sadness and despair and can just tell you that you need to hang in there. I managed 3 months without after hitting a pretty low bottom but it was fear and my own quest for research (which led me to Sinclair Method) that kept me from even thinking of a drink.
If it is an obsessive thought I would recommend you see a psychiatrist for an anti-depressant that also works for OCD (usually an SSRI and they will know the latest and best). I also would recommend you ask for acomprosate which seems to work on the cravings—they will try and tell you Naltrexone does as well but that is BULL Naltrexone is for stopping the pleasure surge when you DO drink, not for stopping the desire to drink.
Mainly what I did is I had goals when I managed to stop, mine was to read and research all I could. I think at this juncture I could write a book about alcohol research to be honest!!!! But if you write down every morning why NOT to drink it may help.
Sign on here every day and ask for help. IT DOES help. I am almost always here as well so I will try and support you all I can and many others who are often here will also!
Good luck and do not be so harsh on yourself! As for why he loves you—well to be PC as I do not know your gender from your name—have you seen “When a Man Loves a Woman” with Meg Ryan? Same concept. I had a bf who saw me through the first and worst part of my alcohol history—namely the beginning, when I was 19 and taking down two bottles of vodka a day. His friends thought he was a nut, but he loved me. Who can explain love?
Hey D.J, nice of you to have found the site. its really sweet of this man to be in love with you and to look past the alcohol issues which unfortunately would turn off alot of people. its very very sad. i forgot where i read it but someone who wrote about his life of alcohol addiction said he had diabetes, cancer, pancreatis, and if he could trade his alcoholism for any of them he would. thats what ive thought recently. it is so hard on us bc we are really looked down upon if people find out about our problem and see it, we embarass ourselves, we hurt ourselves and end up doing/saying things we would never think about doing/saying sober. we have all these horrible problems that are just added on to the physical and pyschological obsession and addiction we have to alcohol. on top of that it causes depression, hangovers., my gosh i can just go on about things. and everyone tells us well just dont drink. but it is such a big part of our life at this point. we view life as boring and dull now unless we drink sometimes!
im a 27 yr old girl in a relationship that im not happy with, but cannot leave at the same time. controlling, possessive, know hes not the one from all of the craziness. lost most my gf’s. hes basically my life now. that, my babysitting/cleaning job i have. im awaiting to see if im accepted for my masters but still dont really feel like teaching is the thing i shoujld do. but i have little choices since i went for my bachelors in fine arts. what else can you do with art? geesh. i know, there are things such as art therapy, but very few options. so you seem to have benders like hopeless, and then you stop for a few days or more at times, am i right? on average what is your drinking like? what do you do for work? im very tired and have a headache so im sorry if im asking questions you m ay have written about.
my drinking went from normal, to going out on weekends getting more drunk than most with me, to then blacking out at least once a week at bars ( still only going out maybe twice a week) to the worst now since ive been with this gu8y who is also an alcoholic. he drank everyday, so now my drinking is daily. it also became worse. started out with a six pack of light beer in the beginning, to now a bottle of wine a night. more when i go out to bars, however oddly enough since my tolerance is so high i dont have the insane embarassing, crazy drunk blackout nights anymore. (nightmares, many of the nights)
ok, im going to bed. major migraine. everyones sick around me in this 30 degree weather in NY. keep posting…
i currently am on week three AF. Im taking antabuse, you can google it if your interested.. i of course plan on drinking again soon, just abssolutely needed a break. and i feel much better, but i am so agitated when im out at a party or something and everyone around me is drinking wine. im just dying for it. so i then turn to food and start eating like crazy, when im trying to lose a few pounds..
night
hey guys, i used a different name in case my bf read the posts, its me jen, i used Colleen
Hello All-
Just wanted to say hi and check in since it has seemed very dead on here! Jen nice to see you here and DJ hope you are hanging in! Katie, Dairy, Worried, BET, Ollie and everyone else would be really nice to hear how it is going for everyone!
I am pleased to say that for me this Sinclair Method seems to really work. I have not had a drink since my Naltrexone experiment and have not wanted one. I did have a bit of a binge off the Naltrexone but nothing like it used to be as I explained. It is apparently not uncommon to want to “cheat” and “see what happens” in the beginning but frankly I did not like losing control and quickly regained it this time so no real damage was done! Since then I decided I would ONLY drink with Naltrexone and have not really even wanted to drink. I may go out tonight but will be sure to take a Naltrexone if I do as I seem to stay more or less in control though not sober. It is hard to explain but you still lose your motor functions, relax, inhibitions still go down but you lose that HUGE rush and the insatiable desire to keep drinking more and more and more. It is more or less like you have a couple and feel like it’s enough though if you “must” (like you are out) you could keep going but just start getting tired and out of it not high from it and not out of control.
Well it is very early on a Saturday morning and I have walked my babies so now I am just going to go back and try and get some more sleep! Hope you all are doing great!
hey guys, yes as hopeless said, where is everyone? Let us know how your doing! im mad at myself because of this binge eating thing i have. i just wanted to lose five pounds. lost two. but every weekend when im around peole that are drinking , i promise myself ill keep to eating healthy and i end up really feeling uncomfortable bc everyonea round me is drinking and i end up bingin on food. last night, same thing at a three hour drinking dinner and club, then came home and ate twinkies, cookies, ice cream. geesh! i hear antidepressants help it.. but i again decided to not take my zoloft after i took it for a few days and read on all these terrible things. for one important thing, they say zoloft and other ssris increase alcohol cravings and those embarassing horrible nights i was on zoloft, and my bf insists that when i was on zoloft that was when all those embarassing drunk nights happened and i became a different person-monster, bitchy, etc. just he really has had a problem with those nights, and hes crazy , so i dont know if i really was that bad. if i was out witih friends there wouldnt be fights started. just an example, like one night i was out with my bf and these guys we were with offered me and my gfs shots, and i wanted one, and my bf angrily insisted i do not take a shot from a guy because thats like flirting. so fights started and i insisted and was real bitchy about it and he almost got into a physical fight with the guy. so really if my bf wasnt there, that angry jen wouldnt have come out. but either way, i dunno. plus zoloft after awhile supposedly usually puts on weight gain for people, and i do not want that.. so i don end up taking it. but ive heard it helps binge eating disorder, and depression which i have mildly.
so im mad at myself for binging on food las tnight. but , whatever, its not the end of the world. im in week three of being AF. i wanted to go longer, but thursday is thanksgiving and everyones asking me if im going in my family, to a resrt where my uncle and aunt live. we all just sit around and drink wine. i thought about just not going, and i thought about going and not drinking. but that would be so frustrating. so i m pretty sure im gonna end up drinking again thanksgiving. hopefully i wont have an embarassing night there. i havent had one of those in awhile bc of my tolerance, but i have drank in three weeks so i dont know how my tolerance will be. i of course PLAN on drinking slow! this is my dads side of the family where they all have drinking issues, but mostly keep it to a few glasses of wine a night except on these holidays of course.
( my dad does drink about a bottle of wine a night though but drinks slow and ive never SEEN him drunk-althought my mom said he used to get drunk when they were younger and out and about)
so hopeless let me know how the naltrex went when you went out. i hope everything went well and your doin great! talk to you all lates!
Well Everyone—where are you??
I wanted to update everyone on my drinking and Naltrexone. Well—I went out last night on Naltrexone and it really was awful. I am having horrible feelings of shame and guilt today. Firstly, I did not drink “way too much” in fact I struggled to drink like any other person would drink. I had two glasses of wine and was fine at that, but as it was Saturday night I figured why not get drunk. So I started to try and drink number three, which I managed slightly, and then glass four—a no go. At glass four I got sick. I had to rush off and go puke up. This is not even funny as I am someone who forget glass 4, bottle 4 is usually on the table by this point. I had to end up going home.
For some stupid reason (because Naltrexone does not stop you from being drunk btw, just how much you drink and want to drink) I decided I wanted to go ask my cute neighbour that had been coming on to me if he wanted to walk his dog with me and my dogs—yes weird as it sounds I have a new neighbour who is living with the son of an owner in the owner’s flat and we met over dog walking and he is kind of cute and kind of asked me out and definitely told me to drop by anytime…only problem, I puked up again right in front of their flat!
Now this is really interesting as Naltrexone is supposed to cause the brain to not crave as much—I promise that it does! BUT I never really researched nor thought about bodily reactions. When I drink on Naltrexone I end up drinking as I did as a teenager (early teens experimental drinking). It is like you drink, you get tipsy, you cannot handle more but may push to have just one more, then you feel like complete hell, get sick and everyone laughs so to speak. Only this was not so funny because the roomate he lives with hates me which I know—his father is a wanker too, but for some reason he has never really liked me which is unusual as I get on with younger blokes really well. Anyway went over there and ended up puking up in front of the flat! NOT nice and not a good impression. I guess I have to learn limits now with Naltrexone and I think luckily that the limits are well under what is considered social drinking–at least for a Saturday night. The downside is you really must watch your drinking to the extent that one too many is far too many.
I am happy to say I feel now like I am a member of the real world and cannot drink the vast sums I used to! Naltrexone, however I must get it, will always be with me now!
This is my Sunday morning, very hungover btw, update and I hope some of you will post as I am dying to know how you all are!
hey hopeless, seems like were the only ones posting lol.. what a night.. its great to me to see what a miracle naltrex did.. my gosh. its like there is true hope for alcoholics!! if they take it of course, but either way that is a great thing to know of! almost astonishing. i guess you werent quite at the point where there was no choice but abstinence, like some say physically dependent alcoholics have to do… mygosh amazing. BUT, sorry about the night! thats embarssing! you can tell them you were sick and you barely drank and you didnt know why that happened other than something u may have ate.. well keep up the good work and i am so happy to hear there is an almost CURE
do you still enjoy drinking on the naltrex ( i know u said it took away the high, etc, but do you feel happier than normal or good still?)
Hi Jen-
I think we posted at the same time too. I do still enjoy drinking but the amount I can take is a lot less but due to habit I tend to force more into me and that is why I think I got sick. I also think that the period of abstinence lowered my tolerance anyway and frankly I have not really felt good since drinking the other night and as a hypochondriac I do worry about my live still. Even drinking normal amounts I often wonder if I had not done previous damage that will become something like hepatitis when I least expect it! (Or worse). I had a heavy couple of years so it is always a worry. The thing with the Naltrexone for me is that it just basically makes it so I both cannot drink too much and also so that I do have control and can choose to stop which is something I never could do before. Whether I stop is another question but I think it is right to the point of the Sinclair Method which is based on “extinction” of the compulsive behaviour of drinking. I seem to drink less and tolerate less each time I have taken it and more and more I choose less. Puking up was not something I expected. Not even slightly. I was very shocked by it and it was really like a “young drinker” who overdoes it and ends up getting sick. The amount was really low for me to have reacted like that so I am convinced it does something more than just affect the brain.
Anyway how is it going with you? Where is everyone these days???
everyone, please dont feel stupid about posting if your having a bad time with the alc.. ive felt it and we all feel like that. or maybe everyones not having a bad time and thats why their not posting! =)
Well it can either be going great or awful but we won’t know. Also could be troubles with the server. I know a lot of people just got fed up. Shame as it is that is the way it is. I for one can say my bigger problem now is smoking! I can now have a drink no problem and frankly can take or leave the cigarettes but seem to want to take one out of habit. It does not help so many venues are outdoors with so many people smoking. I end up in Nicotine withdrawals every time now. They are more “emotional” than alcohol withdrawals to me but not as physical. It is odd as I have not even smoked a lot when I have drank. I am going to try and cut that out of the routine. I do not plan to drink until at least the weekend again and will save my Naltrexone for then. I have come to learn that I think 25mg to start the night and the other half at the end is the best result for me. Not only does it have less side effects, but also same control and also less if any hangover and though I got sick last time, I now know that I could probably go down to even 12.5mg which I have heard a lot of smaller people say they do. The 50mg dose also lasts my body a good 72 hours just for the record. I know this because I can have a glass of wine from a left over bottle no problem if I wanted though I end up killing the bottle down the drain so far (the thought is so repulsive for three days after drinking!).
As for where everyone is–would be lovely to hear from you all. You seem to have dropped into a void.
Well it is a beautiful Saturday and has been ages since most of you have posted. I just want to send my regards and tell you all that I still would love to know how things are going—the good the bad and the ugly!
Have a nice day all!
hi
sorry i have been off, trouble with the site for a bit, having a complete ‘head f**k ‘ with Gf, drinking tonight she is leaving tomorrow. I feel that she has manipulated the whole situation……things were really .. good for two weeks then she turned……..yesterday she told me she hated me!!that is the first time that anybody has said those words to me in my life…really upset and not in a good place at the moment feeling really suicidal
hugs
katie
hi
what book is the sinclair method cos i cant find anything that relates to alchohol
k
hey guys, like i knew, drank on Thanksgiving.. everything was ok that night, got drunk but not terrible. my whole family drank wine from 5 pm till 12 midnight. i was sleepy after awhile of drinking so luckily went to bed. It could have been a bad night.. maybe.. but my dad insisted i go to sleep and not stay up any more when everyone else was pretty much going to their hotel rooms. he said, nah col i know how u get. but in all honesty, everyone there was getting drunk. he was staying up later drinking as well. thank gosh ididnt embarass myself and fight with him about it, causihng him to have another talk with me the day after. the next day after my bf and i drank again. it is so bad that i drink and its like my brain chemistry has changed so much that i just dont feel that “high” that drinking used to give. instead i feel worse. unless i drink really quick, or take shots.(hence why i get to drunk) i was in a bad mindset since i drank the whole night before. so i was depressed. and being depressed, i didnt care, i just drank quicker and quicker. nothing terrible happened, but at the end of the night i got to drunk and its very foggy trying to remember what i exactly said. my bf said i got so mad bc he wouldnt make out with me at the bar and he fought with me and that was that. he said i became bitchy and called him an asshole, etc. i just really have to be quite honest though, these insane arguments never happen with friends when im drunk, its just we always fight. not that i was right to act bitchy and mad that he woulodnt make out with me at the bar! this relationship is terrible. a bad thing i did do that night was drive from bar to bar when i was definitely over the limit, but the last bar when i got bad we took a cab. i know, believe me, i want to kill myself about the drinking and driving. it rarely happens. i usually never bring my car to a bar and drive there, but we went to eat at a restaurant and i didnt think we were going out to a bar after when we had a buzz and etc etc. so the following day i was hungover as hell. BUT i of course went to the mall and purposely went to eat at ruby tuesdays to drink. and i got NO pleasure from the two large beers i had. ( since i drank so much the past two days before) my brain changes the worst my drinking gets, its barely pleasurable if im drinking like i did this weekend. if i go a few days without drinking, i feel good for a short time. then it ends, unless i gulp the drinks.. its probably how it will feel if i take naltrex or whatever. by sunday those two beers at ruby tuesday were so not making me feel happy or anything other than vision changing that i had no problem sayin, end, and went home and didnt drink the rest of the day. that was yesterday, todays monday. ddidnt drink at all but yes i wanted to. so much of this has to do with after these binges i go on, im low and down, so naturally i long for something, anything to feel out of the sadness. and the addiction of course is another reason i wanted to drink today. i just wonder why most of you on here still feel very r happy from alcohol, and i have to drink quick or take a shot to feel five minutes of happiness, once i get kind of drunk. i basically feel the best when i drink in the beginning, as in the first drink or two. itsand weird. ive read so much on it, and it just seems everyones brain is different, but ive also read the obvious, that the more u drink the more you have to drink to feel the good feeling since your brain develops a tolerance-not just a tolerance to how drunk u will feel but a tolernace to those “good feelings”.
anyway, nothing terrible happened, my bf was mad and he purposely woke me up and called me names the whole night and was nasty the nexct morning. so i dont know, i know i have so many issues mentally and changing my life around , my depression, my bf i need to get rid of, that i have to do. im just a mess really. very self destructive. but its stuff ive already told everyone here. its relaly a vicious cycle between the alcohol and trying to feel better and then not being able to to change your life because of the hole your in with the alcohol, the depression, etc. ive decided im going to order topomax.. hopeless i would order the naltrexone but i dont have insurance and its to expensive..honestly though, does it just suck drinking while taking these things? im sorry for the messy rambling and ranting, its just im SO exhausted,e i have a headache, and its three am. AND i cant stand laptops!! you type something and then you notice your writing inthe sentence before that one. gnite guys
Katie-
So sorry you are where you are. I know you tried real hard. The Sinclair Method can be googled and you can get information on it. It is based on David Sinclair and research he (an American) did in Finland since the 70′s. Naltrexone is used in many countries but for the wrong reason and in the wrong way. Most people for some reason seem to use it to promote abstinence and lessen cravings. It does neither. It actually only works when you drink on it and the theory is out of control drinkers have a chemical released in our brains that is like an opiate and by using this we block that and therefore we can only attain a normal drunk.
So far I can say I basically have gotten sick after a few drinks each time I take it. I either sleep or get ill. I am over-doing it out of habit but when I say overdoing it I no longer mean days of bottles I mean more like 5 drinks instead of stopping at three then puking up most of it. I do get drunk but I do not get that out of control feeling. I also find one tablet of 50 mg seems to last in my body a full 72 hours and I also find I get almost instant “alcohol withdrawal” after drinking even if I am drinking small amounts. So something works. There is a book you can get on Amazon by Roy Eskapa called “The Cure for Alcoholism” I think that is what it is called. I do have it somewhere. I found though it is not really exactly how Sinclair himself has written his papers on it.
Jen–I am not sure why Topomax would be cheaper? If you are going via a doctor and not like I did and doing it via internet (also no insurance here) then there is a generic and I see no reason it would be more expensive than the Topomax. The other drugs are not as effective from all I read if I am honest. It seems Naltrexone for a true alcoholic is a magic bullet. It seems to work for 82% of the people which is very significant. I think those it does not work for are compulsive drinkers and not true alcoholics.
Jen–I am not going to comment on your relationship as it just seems toxic to me and you know this for a while. I can say it does seem to go both ways though as you seem to get the best of him too when you are drinking as well. I know you need your own time on this one so enough said from me!
Hope all the rest of the lost posters are well!
hi hopeless, yeah i know the relationship is toxic and i try not to complain about him as i know what im supposed to do. as for me though, that bitchy attitude i got with him that was at the very end of the night happens pretty rarely these days. that was the first timje it happened in at least three or four months. i tried looking up the generic naltrexone and i couldnt find it.. do u have the site you bought it from? the cheapeast topomax at the average amount of mg that will help daily ( about 125-150) would cost around 70 something a month. if naltrexone works so much better why is everyone on the my way out boards taking topomax? just curious, thats another reason i figured i would take the topomax.
Kat i m sorry your going through this time. i feel for you so much. i look around me and everyone seems to be living life happy and im just most of the time going through alot of pain. i have a similar situation as well because of the guy im with. relationships really can cause alot of problems and pain! i always wanted one and now i finally got it, and wish i could go back in time and never have met him and have all my old fun girlfriends back and probably half the alcohol problem iw ould have had if i never met him.
well im off to work! do feel better that i havent drank in a couple days.
Jen-I do have the site but they censor them on this board. It cost me only 86 dollars for 30 and I only take half a tablet when I want a drink. My Way Out is a lot more about abstinence and craving control. Just so you know I do not think Topomax is even approved for use by FDA yet and also it is worse on the liver and can be addictive itself from what I hear (in other words they always talk about not stopping it unless you consult your doctor). If you are going to take a pill daily for this then you are better off with Naltrexone because you can half them for one thing and for another thing you only take them when you want a drink.
I will be honest, they may not be effective for you. It is just something you ought to consider. Then again these are all gambles and none are effective for everyone. I find Naltrexone a lifesaver for me but I am concerned about how sick I feel after just a bit to drink. It is almost as if my body is repulsed by any alcohol. I am literally holding back vomit after the first few sips just to get to the point I can start the buzz and enjoy it. Frankly, alcohol is no longer enjoyable for me now and the irony is I DO get drunk I just do not feel it is so worth it. Between having to fight off puking the puking up anyway after a few it is just something that I think eventually I will choose away from my life in all but as needed situations.
As for your bf—well all when it is time! I am really curious about other people’s experiences with Naltrexone as I find nothing in the literature about people getting ill from it. My experience is frankly more like what antabuse is supposed to do.
The generic is called Revia and the pharmacy is canada 24 / 7 if that comes out. They will ship from India though.
Good luck no matter what you choose!
hey, ok im going to google naltrexone. yeah different things seem to work for diff people. the thing about naltrexone that works for you is your taking it when you drink, but i would be afraid also that i wouldnt take it certain times on purpose. im gonna head to bed. hope everyones well…talk tomorrow
night
OMG!
Jen I was petrified! I thought it was a farce. Charm! Just sit in alone and after a few beers you will see. It is scary!
hi
well after a week of being pissed i went to the doctor yesterday primarily to get naltrexone, but have ended up (to my surprise) with another load of valium, so i am detoxing again and i have to go back on Tuesday when I may get the naltrexone depending on the conversations that my doctors has with an addiction specialist.
Apparently it is only registered to give to heroin addicts in this country so that brings with it a whole host of problems about using a drug for a purpose other than it was intended blah blah blah!!! I said i would get it of the internet anyway and would probably end up taking ‘cow dung’ or worse so my doctor lreluctantly agreed to give it to me if she got back up. Good what a performan ce…….anyway I shouldn’t moan i supopose she is doing what she has too.
By the way I live in England, I know FH is in america, cant remember where Jen or any of the others are or if they have ever said.
Naltrexone costs about $100 to hasve sent over here and it could be anything, a persciption costs £7 about $10 so there is a difference in the cost plus I know what |I will be getting.
How are you doing FH are you still just drinking occasionally and are you still feeling sick with the Naltrexone?
what is topomax supposed to do? is it like antibuse?
How are you doing Jen? you always sound much happier when you have stopped drinking it is a shame you are with an alchi, I dont know how you can be so strong to give up when people around you are drinking. I find it so difficult and i live with a teetotal!!!! who would happily shoot
every drinker if it was legal (bang bang) and sometimes i wonder if she might even be tempted to break the law for me, if looks could kill, I would have checked out of here a long long time ago.
anyway hope you all have a good week-end, shame nobody posts very much anymore hope it is because everybody is doing fine
hugs to you all
katie
hola guys, kat i live on long island, NY. And yes, although life seems a bit on the dull or boring side when im AF ( althought it probably would get better after a month which is the most ive given up alc for), i still am much happier mentally. i dont have the depression hardly at all af. and yeah it does suck being with an alcoholic as well because it reallyh brings down my moderating days, its very tough so i end up drinking more again and moderating doesnt work so well. normally without him, i would absolutely force myself to hang with sober friends as much as possible at night. its bc of him that i became in these later stages of alcoholism at this point. im probably in the middle stage, but my brains changed so miuch since he introduced me to drinking alone at home everynight. im not doing well tonight as its sunday and drank thurs night through last night, each time being heavy drinking with the nausea hangover. so i didnt drink tonight, and i dont really FEEl like it, but i feel real down, therefore im a bit fighting the bottle of wine i have in the room. but im trying to not drink tonight so this depression and funk can pass, which happens almost every weekend. takes a day or two to feel mentally better. actually more like three. ( days without drinking)
Kat topomax is similar to naltrex in that it basically has an effecte on blocking the dopamine high youd feel from drinking, so it supposedly makes the drinking gotta keep going feeling absent, since you dont feel “good”. but it not only does that, it also takes away cravings. if you go to the my way out message boards on the forum with the meds naltrex, camral, topomax, kudzu, etc. thats the title, most the people are on topamax and id say 9 out of 10 of them are amazed with it, and lost weight because you supposedly dont get pleasure from food either. lol it sounds promising, im REALLLLLy hoping it works. they say topa has the most side effects though, compared to naltre and others.
hopelss, so let us kinow more about the drinking nights you have. how u feel, how its going, etc. what do u mean by this,Formerly Hopeless Says:
December 5th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
OMG!
Jen I was petrified! I thought it was a farce. Charm! Just sit in alone and after a few beers you will see. It is scary
tty guys lates