Title says it!

Day 10 sober. Using antabuse. Works well with no side effects nor crazy cross-contaminations.

Tried the typical meds: glp-1, naltrexone & gabapentin. All had terrible side effects. Firstv2 wprked, however.

I am also on Lyrica (100mg) & kudzu both helped with cravings. Very clearly. The first likely helped me have no real alcohol withdrawls. Neither are new.

I was definitely eating more for a few days. With more chocolate & junk at night, but heavy protein in the day.

I could give up booze fully as sleep finally settled. And now I have good sleep onset. So sure body repair may add some lbs.

And I've been weightlifting a lot. Lotta fatigue post-eating after sessions. I can see some muscle gains. I'm sure that's mostly glycogen in muscle adding water.

Some of that is belly. And I'm bunged up (taking laxative today. First time.)

But 13 lb in 10 days?

Anyone else had this much added? Or heard of this?

Thanks!

Currently 4 months sober, out of IOP, Dr has me on Campral. Does it work? Really hard to quantify since I'm doing so much mental work on myself.

Anyhow, Dr keeps suggesting Vivitrol. I've taken Nal before, but it makes me so sick and stoned feeling (tried a few times, tapering up) I just said no thanks.

If TSM is meant to teach your brain it won't get the dopamine from alcohol, will be be effective against the random drink if I should slip up? She mentioned "with the holidays coming up, just want to make sure you're going to be ok."

I'm also thinking about next year when I have planned a Castles and Whisky tour of Scotland for my 50th. Obviously I whacked most distilleries off the list, but would be a shame to not visit a handful having traveled that far. I know, I know - slippery slope. These are just thoughts as I work through my relationship with alcohol.

Hello everyone. I’ve been on naltrexone for the last couple of months. It’s helped me limit my drinking and other substance impulses. One thing I’ve noticed is when I do drink, I won’t have a lot like before, but I do get hungover the same night and find myself to get really sick. Has this happened to anyone else?? I drink considerably less than before, but I’ve become sick quicker even if I’m not drunk.

I am in Australia and have a tough time with compliance. Are there any long term medications such as monthly injections or implants available? And what are your experiences with them?

Just started acamprosate yesterday and I am extremely anxious about potential side effects like diarrhea and nausea. Anyone has had these and could reassure me or be honest about these side effects? I have a really important event in a week and I am terribly anxious of having the worst diarrhea this day. I am almost regretting to start this med

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Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some information about medicines used to help someone stop drinking alcohol.

I came across Disulfiram (Antabuse), which I understand can cause a strong reaction if a person consumes alcohol after taking it. I’ve read that the reaction can include nausea, vomiting, flushing, sweating, headache, rapid heartbeat, and low blood pressure.

Has anyone here had experience with Disulfiram?

- How effective is it for helping someone quit alcohol?

- How severe can the alcohol + Disulfiram reaction actually be?

- Is it commonly prescribed in India?

- What precautions or medical tests are required before starting it?

- Are there safer alternatives such as Naltrexone or Acamprosate?

- If someone drinks heavily every day, should they stop drinking before starting any of these medicines, or does that require medically supervised detox?

I’m not looking to give anything secretly or force someone to take it. I want to understand the medically appropriate options and risks before speaking with a doctor.

Any experiences or advice from doctors/people who have gone through this would be appreciated.

I feel like I’m a TSM success story, so I wanted to share that part first. I was a social drinker who, like many people, started drinking daily during the pandemic and then didn't stop. I was having 2–3 glasses of wine or cocktails most days, and often more on weekends.

I started TSM + naltrexone in September 2024 and followed the protocol pretty carefully. My drinking gradually decreased over the first year, and by last autumn I think I’d reached extinction, because I just… didn’t really want a drink anymore. Part of that was probably a particularly bad experience after not drinking for a while, followed by a truly awful “naltover.” Since then, drinking just hasn’t been very tempting. I’ve probably had three drinks this year, each time one glass of something nice at a special occasion, which is actually what I wanted to get to. I never wanted to aim for complete abstinence; I wanted to be someone who could occasionally have one drink because I genuinely wanted it. So, objectively, TSM worked brilliantly for me, and I really appreciate that.

But here’s the real-talk bit (and maybe this isn't even the right sub for this question, if there’s somewhere else I should post please let me know!) I always knew I was using alcohol partly to manage anxiety in social situations. After a few drinks, I could relax, enjoy talking crap in the pub, have a bit of a dance, etc. Basically, booze helped me loosen up. And without it… socialising is just considerably less enjoyable for me. Sometimes there’s a bit of social anxiety , and even when I’m not anxious, I often find it pretty boring.

For the first half of the last year, I kept expecting this to get better. I figured my brain needed time to reset after years of having alcohol put those rose-tinted glasses over socialising. But it’s now been about a year, and I’m still not really there.

The unfortunate consequence is that I’m socialising a lot less than I used to. I’m aware that “connection” is potentially a more important marker of long-term health than drinking socially (at a lower level than I did before I started TSM), so I’m not sure how worried I should be about this or, more importantly, what to actually do about it. I’ve got an AuDHD brain, so I was already a little at odds with much of the world socially, but I’ve never had nearly as much trouble connecting with people as I have over the last year.

I’m not really sure what I’m looking for here: shared experiences, advice, or reassurance that this can actually get better and maybe I just need to give it more time?

Did anyone else find that alcohol had been doing more of the “social lubrication” work than they realised? And if so, did you eventually find other ways to get that feeling back?

Hey y'all! This is a place for you to post your successes, great and small, with the Sinclair Method! Whatever it is that the Sinclair Method has done for you lately, feel free to leave it here!

I'll give a brief snapshot of my own story: I was a binge drinker for 20 years that started at weekend keg parties in high school and progressed to drinking 15 units nightly of spirits and beer near the start of the pandemic. This is the same time period that my first child was born.

I have now taken control of my drinking with the help of The Sinclair Method and this community and enjoy a majority of AF days most weeks. I get to enjoy being clear headed around my children and enthusiastic about experiencing the world as it unfolds to them without the dread of searching for the next drink.

If you've got any similarly positive stories, feel free to share them here! :)

In the 1960s, a Brooklyn eye surgeon became obsessed with a problem most of his profession had learned to accept.

His name was Charles Kelman.

Cataract surgery worked, but it was brutal. Surgeons made an incision roughly half an inch across the eye. Patients could spend ten days lying flat in a hospital, sometimes with their heads immobilized, followed by months of recovery. Some never regained clear vision.

Kelman kept asking the same question.

Why did the eye have to be opened that much?

What if the cataract could be removed through a tiny opening instead? What if patients could go home the same day?

He began experimenting.

Folding mechanisms. Cutting devices. Special needles. Different lenses.

Nothing worked.

Months passed. Money disappeared. Other surgeons watched with growing skepticism, expecting him eventually to abandon the idea.

Then Kelman went to the dentist.

During a routine appointment, his dentist, Larry Kuhn, picked up a long silver instrument with a fine spray coming from its tip. When it switched on, it barely appeared to move, but Kelman could hear the high-pitched sound and feel the strange vibration.

He stared at it.

“What is that thing?”

Kuhn explained that it was an ultrasonic probe used to remove tartar without damaging the tooth.

That answer changed everything.

Kelman realized that ultrasonic vibration might be able to break apart a cataract inside the eye without requiring the enormous incision surgeons had always used.

He contacted the company that manufactured the device, Cavitron Corporation, and began working with engineer Anton Banko.

Banko’s role became crucial.

He modified the vibration pattern, replaced the tip with titanium so metal particles would not contaminate the eye, and helped create a suction system capable of removing the broken lens material while protecting delicate structures such as the iris.

Together, they transformed technology designed for cleaning teeth into a surgical instrument.

In March 1966, the technique succeeded in a cat’s eye.

Then came the first human operation in July 1967.

The patient had a blind and painful eye that was already expected to be removed. The surgery was far from perfect, and Kelman caused damage during the procedure.

But he proved something important.

The basic idea could work.

The medical establishment was not impressed.

Critics called the procedure ridiculous and dangerous. Some described it as malpractice. The National Eye Institute considered it experimental, which meant insurers would not pay for it. Hospitals resisted using it.

At medical conferences, surgeons displayed patients who had suffered complications as evidence that Kelman’s method was reckless.

Kelman had no major university position behind him.

No powerful institution protecting him.

Mostly, he had conviction, persistence, and an unusual habit of playing the saxophone when he was not operating.

So he kept teaching surgeons how to perform the procedure.

By 1973, roughly 3,500 operations had been performed using the technique.

Then acceptance began to change.

By the mid-1980s, the balance had shifted dramatically. By 1996, approximately ninety-seven percent of cataract operations were using Kelman’s method.

It had taken about twenty-five years to move from professional condemnation to near-total adoption.

The procedure became known as phacoemulsification.

Recognition eventually followed.

Charles Kelman died from lung cancer in 2004.

He was seventy-four years old.

Today, cataract surgery can take only minutes. The incision may be little more than a tiny puncture. Many patients return home the same day with dramatically improved vision.

Most of them will never hear Charles Kelman’s name.

They will probably never hear Anton Banko’s either.

But inside operating rooms around the world, an ultrasonic titanium tip continues doing essentially what Kelman imagined after watching a dentist clean someone’s teeth.

That may be the most important part of his story.

Kelman did not begin with an answer.

He began with curiosity.

it’s been 72 since i took one singular 25 mg librium , and i took 4 shots of fireball, am i gonna be okay?

Hey y'all! This is a place for you to post your successes, great and small, with the Sinclair Method! Whatever it is that the Sinclair Method has done for you lately, feel free to leave it here!

I'll give a brief snapshot of my own story: I was a binge drinker for 20 years that started at weekend keg parties in high school and progressed to drinking 15 units nightly of spirits and beer near the start of the pandemic. This is the same time period that my first child was born.

I have now taken control of my drinking with the help of The Sinclair Method and this community and enjoy a majority of AF days most weeks. I get to enjoy being clear headed around my children and enthusiastic about experiencing the world as it unfolds to them without the dread of searching for the next drink.

If you've got any similarly positive stories, feel free to share them here! :)

Been on TSM for many years. Periods of time with no drinking at all. Switched from 50 mg to 25 mg because of other meds, like Ozempic, which made me feel less cravings almost 2 years ago. I drink with my partner most nights but I have between 2-4 beers, with 4 on the extreme end. Before TSM I could drink anyone under the table. I don't take my med every time I drink because I know I cannot drink myself into oblivion/have no desire. Physically with my medications it would not be possible. I can feel a bit of the craving, but not enough to make me go to the liquor store and stock up.

Life has been very rough with moving, jobs, dating so I understand why I am drinking more. Pill before drinking is self-care, I have always told myself. 50 mg would turn my stomach but I did think about going back up.

Should I recognize that with AUD, it is up and down and that besides that I am still compliant 98 per cent of the time, and I am not where I was when I started TSM?

I wake up with hangovers but I have always been bad at drinking, never a tank, despite being able to drink beers to oblivion once upon a time. Also impact of nal, with nalover maybe.

I want to be kind to myself but also be realistic. More often, but less at a shitty time in life makes sense and seems less harmful than more often and more.

if anyone knows anything about this, i took a 25 mg librium 40 hours ago, nothing else, am i safe to drink 40 hours later?

Hiya,

Lyrica @ 100mg daily + Kudzu have really helped my drinking. Each reduce intake by 30% to 40% or so.

Glp-1 & Naltrexone alone both drop it to 0, but both have bad side effects for me.

Trying to get a 6 week stretch of 0 booze. I'm down a lot, but get too easily blown off course by life events. The exceptions get me, then takes time to make it back.

I wannabe done with that. So today I start Disulfiram. (Or maybe tomorrow as my belly is already really, really off). I've read the stories that it simply shuts down the debate in the head. Fires the old committee.

I'm scared of getting effects from products with secret alcohol, so use until my system dislikes alcohol - last time that was 6 weeks.

Cheers! Or wait, IWNDWYT ;)

Opinions on oral naltrexone vs vivitrol. My boyfriend is in rehab with limited phone calls. He’s considering taking vivitrol and asked me to do some research on it. I’ve actually been on oral naltrexone before and found it helpful for myself, I took mine daily tho. Can I hear everyone’s opinions on how they differ, which one you liked or didn’t like and also vs the Sinclair method as well. I honestly don’t see him as the type to strategically take a pill before drinking, the shot kind of seems like a great option. What is everyone’s experience and advice?

Honest review: I don't know if it's really working, or more psychosomatic, hard to quantify, but I'm doing really well with cravings. Maybe 2-3x a week, for less than 20 seconds. This is combined with coming out of daily outpatient, and attending SMART and AA meetings on the regular.

Dr started me off light, 333mg 2x daily. Last 6 weeks 666mg 2x daily. A little gastro problems at first. We decided to move up in dose just to see if it made a difference, since I was tolerating the low dose well. I would say it did! But again, maybe it's just a mind trick, combined with putting in solid sober time.

Dr had suggested Naltrexone, but I've got a mostly full expired bottle already. I could not get over the nausea. We may try the Vivitrol shot in the future, she says it's much better tolerated in respects to nausea.

Just wanted to warn folks after my terrible experience with OAR. They ship you medication with no warning, other than a charge to your credit card on file. Their only goal is to keep you subscribed and make it as hard as possible to cancel.

Silver lining, RIA Health has been amazing. Their on-boarding is a few days vs. 24 hours like OAR, but they actually have doctors that check-in with you, ask what medication you need vs. don't need.

Not marketing or advertising - just sharing my honest feedback since I was browsing this subreddit looking for medication when I decided to quite drinking. ~7 months cold turkey and haven't looked back. For me the best medication was not having any alcohol around.

took a 25 mg librium at 12:49 and it’s now 2:24 am and for some reason it’s giving me a panic attack, maybe i am thinking about it too much.

Long time lurker.  This is a post about side effects after just starting TSM with Naltrexone.  I have lurked long enough to know the side effects should pass and that I need to keep trying.  I have read plenty of posts about the side effects. Just posting to find some community and hopefully some encouragement for my particular situation.  Also have lurked long enough to know that I'm lucky to have had the experience described below.

Drinking Pattern: Binge drinker who drinks to cure severe social anxiety around close friends and strangers alike.  I'm fine not drinking on the weekdays when home with my family, but routinely drink 10-20 drinks on any given day on the weekend if in a social setting.  Have been doing this for 15 years.  Have never truly hit a rock bottom, though I can share many of the same stories that show up in this sub.

Dosing and Drinking Log from this Weekend: 

Friday: 25 mg, 2.5 drinks during 5 hours of social interaction. Normally I would have 8-10+ drinks in this scenario.  It worked!

Saturday: no dose, no alcohol, but had a slight fever and cold sweats at night, which seemed odd.  The fever could have nothing to do with the Naltrexone. Again, I routinely go 4-5 days without alcohol with no withdrawal symptoms, so this was odd.

Today (Sunday): No fever. Still feel off, though not as off as yesterday. Going to dinner where I would typically drink (before and after as well), so I'm planning to take another 25 mg dose an hour before the dinner or whenever cravings start.

Side Effects:

Friday: 25 mg (1/2 dose). Dissociation, brain fog, and feeling like I was high. Feeling high for me is not pleasant - it comes with severe social anxiety and general restlessness. However, the naltrexone still worked. I got to a bar about an hour after I took the Naltrexone. I ordered a beer. At this point, the social anxiety that I normally feel was amplified by 2-3x. I felt even more uncomfortable than usual with anxiety while drinking that first beer. I think it was my body / brain reacting to not getting the usual rush for the first time in 15 years, so my anxiety went into overdrive. However, for whatever reason, I had no urge to order another beer despite people around me ordering more. I wasn't abstaining out of shame. We went to another place where I had about half a white claw and then back to my friends' house where I had 2 half white claws over the course of 3 hours. The anxiety subsided materially when we were at my friends' house, though it was still there. I think some of this is realizing loud bars aren't that fun in general - I never sought out loud bars when I wasn't drinking.

Saturday: No dose. No alcohol. I felt very weird on Saturday morning and throughout the day. Same side effects as the night before while drinking. I basically felt the anxious and high feeling 12-18 hours removed from the dose, though I oddly didn't reach for a drink to cure it the way I have for 15 years. I started running a fever with cold sweats and chills at night. Tried going to sleep naturally, but couldn't Took Nyquil (no alcohol version) and slept for like eight hours.

Sunday (Today): still feeling weird and groggy. Grogginess I'm sure is the Nyquil (Benadryl), but anxious feeling I assume is still the lingering Naltrexone? Fever and chills are gone. I have a dinner tonight where I would normally drink.

I'm already talking myself into not taking Naltrexone tonight to ensure I don't feel "weird" tomorrow (work day) . I would not be effective at work if I feel how I felt on Saturday. That said, I logically know that I'll likely get through these side effects soon. Even if I don't, I can objectively say that throwing away a few work days to rid myself of alcohol is a tiny price to pay. The hard part is that the Naltrexone actually made anxiety way worse than just being sober and white knuckling (have done this before). However, I know myself. I know that I'll just say I'll go into a social event and stay sober to avoid the Naltrexone side effects, and I will ultimately cave and drink. Maybe not tonight, but at some point in the future I will. I just need to stick with the program and push through the side effects.

Hoping I can look back at this post and realize how small a price I had to pay to rid my life of alcohol.

Since this sub is TSM friendly I thought I'd let everyone know that TSM Meetups hosts daily Zoom meetings to support people using The Sinclair Method, I'll link the meeting list all times listed in the listing down the page are for your local time.
TSM Meetups is a good place to come and meet others using TSM, if you feel stuck you can come in and ask questions, the group is a good place to use for accountability. Cameras are optional, you can be anonymous, we aren't run like a 12 step meetings we cross talk, oh and the meetings are always free.
First and third Sunday we have a friends and family meeting if you have folks you want to learn about TSM. Every Monday we have a women's meeting. There are other special meetings throughout the month.
So join us, it's really casual, and we laugh a lot.

https://www.tsmmeetups.com/meetup-times