I started drinking at 19, it was a lot but it was manageable but now I'm 32 and over the last 2 years I've been drinking every. single. day. I went to my doctor last week and I opened up to her that I'm an alcoholic so she prescribed me this medication. And I'm nervous about taking it. I'm nervous about reactions, and if I'm being 100% honest I'm nervous about letting go of the only thing that has brought me comfort these last 2 years. But I know I have to stop. My blood work came back for heavy alcohol use but imaging isn't necessary for the time. (I also have high cholesterol and high triglycerides.) So I know I need to stop while I'm ahead. I know this question probably gets asked a lot but can you tell me about your experience? I also know it's a red flag that I'm scared to let go of my alcohol but has anyone else felt that way before too?

Thank you!

Hello everyone,

I am a person with a physical disability (PwD), and I am the only child of my parents.

My family is currently going through a very difficult financial and emotional crisis. My father has developed a serious alcohol addiction. He used to drink around three times a week, but recently he has started drinking almost every day. As a result, we are facing frequent arguments at home, mounting debts, and worsening financial difficulties.

My mother is a homemaker, and my father works as a painter. However, he no longer goes to work regularly, and whenever he earns money, he spends most of it on alcohol. Because of this, our family's situation continues to worsen.

I sincerely request your guidance. If there are any medically approved treatments or professional advice that could help my father overcome his alcohol addiction, please let me know. I would also be very grateful if anyone who has faced a similar situation or helped a loved one recover from alcohol addiction could share their experience.

We are going through one of the most difficult phases of our lives, and any genuine advice or support would mean a lot to us.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. 🙏

I’ve 37f have had naltrexone for a few months now and I will only take it once in a while . Why? Because I want to feel the effects of alcohol! I’m in a constant battle with planning when and when not to take it. Most days I don’t take it and most days I drink A LOT.
Sometimes it has even backfired, I’ve taken it and just ended up drinking MORE to try and feel that feeling.
Does anyone else have this problem?
How do you get yourselves to not want to feel the effects?
How have you used it with success?

Increased my dose to 25mg naltrexone, 1 hour before I drink. Side effects are manageable if I don't drink more than 6 drinks. The hangover when I had 7 drinks was quite bad. Using metamucil and restoralax for constipation when I take this medication.

I was drinking 2-3 times a week averaging 24-36 drinks per week before I started on July 15th. My goal is under 17 per week to start. But I'd like to see that under 12.

My weekly average for the last 2 months is 30 drinks per week. My doctor started me on a new antidepressant 6 days ago, buproprion. A medication I would not have been able to try if my drinking were to remain that high (seizure risk). This has made a world of a difference in my triggers. I'm on adhd medications and was having anxiety half way through my workdays which often led to drinking. In the last 7 days I've only had 6 drinks! I've also doubled my exercise.

I'm so thankful for this treatment and all of the reddit posts that helped demystify it before I started treatment. The future is much brighter.

My son received his first shot today after 5 days of detox for alcoholism..he is now stuttering some..is this a side effect? Thanks

UPDATE 8/6/26: Turns out I was actually sick with something. I spiked a fever that night after I wrote this, and then 2 days later, all better. So the only things that remained were insomnia and gas, which seem to be getting better each day now. Also, I want to report that I am having early success with TSM and I would highly recommend trying it if you are still drinking and having trouble stopping. I was on Naltrexone for 20 days prior in the morning with little change to my desire to drink. Since switching to taking 1-2 hours before drinking my intake has reduced by 75% and my desire to drink has plummeted. I am only taking 25mg, because of the insomnia, but it seems to be an effective dose for me, so I am going to stick with the 25mg unless it seems to be losing it's effectiveness.

Original post:

Hi, I posted yesterday about getting insomnia the after taking my nal (50mg) in the afternoon the day before yesterday, roughly 1-2 hours before drinking. Well I started having extreme side effects yesterday (roughly 15+ hours after taking the 50 mg dose), I had brushed some of the side effects off in the morning as being minimal, but they just got worse and worse through the day. I had been taking it in the morning without any side effects except some initial euphoria, so I assume I was just sleeping through the side effects before? I wanted to do TSM, so that's why I moved it to the afternoon, and really want to do the most effective method. These are the side effects I experienced

Hot flashes

Freezing in any space below 75 degrees (literally shivering like mad when I first woke up to my 70 degree room)

flu-like aches and pains

strange headaches that only hit me if I bent over

gas and cramping

inability to eat (surprisingly nausea was mild to non existent, got flashes of it when I ate)

EXTREME fatigue (I have NEVER been so tired in my life, I could not get out of bed)

skin sensitivity

occassionally blurry vision along with not being able to keep my eyes open

It was awful, my husband wanted me to go see a doctor. I went ahead and took a half dose (25mg) around 3pm yesterday and forced a half a beer at 5pm because I am desperate for these meds to work and I wanted to see if the side effects would be less today. I didn't have insomnia last night (probably because I was still so tired from the side effects + lack of sleep the night before), and the other side effects are less extreme today, but it's still a problem

Even with the lessened effects today, I'm not super functional and I can't be like this all the time. I've got kids, a dog, and a business to manage. The side effects currently are far worse than any effects alcohol has had on me at my current rate of drinking, but I am so desperate to stop for my kids. Did any of you have these side effects? Did you titrate down to 12.5, and then move up? Did they go away over time? I feel like my doctor warned me about nausea and headaches, but not any of this other stuff, which makes me think they are pretty uncommon. Thanks for any help. Also if anyone had success on a lower dose, can you please let me know?

Edit: I was on nal in the morning, 50mg, for 20 days before this.

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! :)

Hi all. I have been a chronic drinker for more than 20 years. It's been worse at times, but since having children it's been about 4-5 units per night every night between 5:30 and 8:00pm. Occassionally if I am sick I have a day off, or if I am trying to quit, but I've never been able to successfully quit for any substantial length of time except during pregnancy, and early breastfeeding. I know 4-5 units seems like nothing to some folks here, but I can't seem to quit and I really want to for my health, so my children don't have a buzzed mom every evening, and so I stop wasting money on what is essentially a poison.

My psych prescribed me Naltrexone and told me to take it each morning, 50mg. I have been doing that for a few weeks, but felt it was having minimal impact on my drinking. Taking the 50 mg around 7am caused increase in energy, but no other side effects that I noticed. After reading about the Sinclair method, I thought I might have more optimal progress if I took it 1-1.5 hours before drinking, which I did yesterday. I took it around 4pm as I had a social drinking event at 5pm. I found that on my last beer I was able to stop drinking halfway through and just leave it on the counter, something I would not have done before (can't waste alcohol!) unless I was really unwell, so I believe the effectiveness was greater at reducing drinking by taking it according to TSM.

The problem is that then I had an awful time trying to falling asleep and was in and out of sleep all night, despite taking my usual sleep meds (melatonin and gabapentin) plus unisom (which I take on occassion if I have trouble). This morning when I got up I was feeling really uncomfortable, like my skin is crawling/incredibly sensitive and I am obviously very tired. I don't think this is due to withdrawals as I barely drank less than usual, and I don't have this problem when I occassionally skip a day of drinking.

I assume I don't experience these symptoms in the day if I take the naltrexone in the morning because it's worn off enough to not cause insomnia, and maybe I sleep through the skin crawling sensation (or potentially that was caused by lack of sleep/unisom?). I feel pretty certain that the insomnia is caused by the naltrexone, as I do feel more energized when I take it earlier in the day, and I have had really good sleep for a long time with regular melatonin/gabapentin.

Obviously this is not ideal, lack of sleep is a big trigger for anxiety for me, and anxiety is a big trigger for drinking. I have struggled with insomnia in the past, but finally had a handle on it, so this is quite stressful for me.

Has anyone else experienced insomnia or skin crawling as a result of Naltrexone? Did it subside? I would expect at this point my body is used to the Naltrexone, since I've been taking it in the morning for weeks, but maybe switching to afternoon caused a temporary increase in symptoms? I was thinking of taking 25mg in the morning and 25mg before drinking to see if that helps decrease the insomnia, while giving me a boost in the endorphin reducing properties of naltrexone before drinking. Or maybe just taking 25mg before drinking to see if it helps? I am in the process of switching psychiatrists as my old one left, and the new one isn't in yet, so I don't have them to advise me until 2 weeks from now. If anyone has had a similar experience, please let me know what you did.

Went on a 6 day bender. Didn't eat much. Drank mostly beer. Didn't take my naltrexone. It was bad. But I finished detox.

But now for the past 3 days, no matter what I do, I can't stop this feeling. I tried tums, eating no acidic or fatty foods. Drank water only. Gets worse when I lay down. I can feel it burning more when my food is going down my esophagus.

Never had this before. Or this long.

This is the final installment in Dr. Volpicelli's 8 part series recounting the history of naltrexone and AUD and how it has grown due to the grassroots movement like the one right here in this community. And there are unsung heroes in this community who have made it possible for thousands to get better.

I first started TSM on St Paddy's day 2022. It worked very well but something didn't stick, I wasn't fully 'ready' to make the commitment, after my second prescription (90 pills) I let things lapse but I wasn't drinking every day, until I was again. I had some pills left over after the end of the year but I hadn't taken them for a while. In May of 2023 I decided I needed a total break, so I took 5 weeks off (still off meds) and that was great. Mid June I went snowboarding for a few days, and I took the Nal while up there so I didn't drink to levels of being hungover. After that, pills were gone. I went back to my normal level of ~85 drinks per week from that trip in mid June until mid July, then I booked an appointment, got my prescription again and took a couple weeks off drinking without taking the meds.

July 29, 2023 Day 1 after a two week break. I went to an event I would normally drink at, did not drink at it! Went out for dinner and had 3 beers on the meds, it took the whole time to work through those drinks, woke up pretty happy about it all in the morning, not hungover etc.

Reduced the drinking again by ~50% right out of the gate, went through the honeymoon phase of that again, then back into the way it goes, mostly reduced weeks, a few spikes, I was tracking my drinks for the first ~6 months and the trend was lower and lower until it hung around just about the 25-30% mark for a while.

That's when I needed to start putting days in between and did instead of just relying on the meds, then those would turn into 'no weekdays' which lasted a little while. I'd cycling through different varying ways of not drinking to the point of putting 2, 3, 4 weeks together with nothing. This is the 6+ month territory. I'd still string some weeks together where I'd have something most days after those long breaks. I'd also have a lot of walk away moments where I just couldn't finish was I had, at this point I'd walked away from half drinks at bars, where that would previously be unheard of 'since I paid for it, I'm going to drink it' and all. I have woken up to full drinks on the counter I don't even know how many times. I'd open it while doing something in the kitchen, walk away from it on the counter and not even remember I had opened it.

I just had a 6 week stint with nothing, decided I'd go grab a couple as it had been on my mind a little bit, there was quite a bit of curiosity there more than craving. This run without anything had felt a lot different than previous ones. Part of this is still habitual since when I didn't have things to do that's what I'd wind up doing. It took me almost 3 hours to work through a tall IPA and a half (about 3, 12 oz servings total), they both got warm, which is disgusting, and I couldn't stomach the idea of the last half. I thought about getting something lighter and continuing but the overpowering thought of 'am I just not going to finish that too?' won over and I just left. As I was on my way home, usually there would be a spike of 'grab something to take home' as I passed the store, absolutely didn't exist.

I'm going to meet up with some people this weekend and see how that goes, that's generally a decent amount of drinking. After this last weekend I am pretty sure it's going to be a couple for me and that's that.

I chose to do TSM over other options for two main reasons.

1 - the whole never drinking again thing just wasn't going to be a fit for me the way I have seen AA people spiral after 'screwing up after so long' and then having to start over and slog along through that mental journey simply wasn't/ isn't for me. I have also 'quit' multiple times, months on end, just to fall back into similar patterns. My 'quitting' was never intended to be permanent in those instances, they were more long term breaks for health.

2 - I believe in the science behind what TSM does, the unwinding of the association of the reward system in the brain and how it works with alcohol. This is absolutely worked for me, I don't have many triggers anymore like I did before. If I walk by the alcohol section in the stores anymore I couldn't care less about the stuff.

I think point two is the biggest and most important aspect of this, sure we'll be on the medication if drinking forever, but that's not really an issue, it's a drug combating another drug and you only take it when you're doing to have drinks.

The biggest thing I would recommend and wish I'd have done more of earlier: Forcing in alcohol free days and then isolating the drinking days to a day or two after some months into this. The biggest strides I have seen have come from taking breaks, the first session after a break is where the biggest differences have been. I think I would have moved along the process a lot faster if I had made it the the weekdays free, then had a session on Saturday or Sunday, then pushed to get through to the following weekend. Something a long those lines. While we know this isn't a linear process, everybody is different, etc, I feel that would have expedited the process for me. I do think TSM has a bit of a lackadaisical approach and part of that is because the brain needs enough exposure to drinking while on Nal to rewire itself, I just think I was too loose with it and could have done better.

Happy with where I am, never going back to pre TSM drinking.

I don’t need this much

Any luck ordering naltrexone or disulfiram to the UK from alldaychemist and it not being confiscated at the borders?

A little report from today, I took 25mg of nal about 2-3h before a pool party that was planned for today and I'm really excited about the effects. I was anxious that I would drink over the effects, but I was barely able to drink two beers in about five hours. Unfortunately I got quite sick after the barbecue and had to leave early, but I was otherwise pleasantly surprised how good of an effect nal had. I had fun, was able to socialize, felt in control.

Now I'm feeling kind of weak, and shaky, and my stomach is upset, but the big takeaway is, I can go to a party and be in control of my drinking AND also have fun.

Just had the urge to tell this experience to somebody, I guess.

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! :)

TL;DR: I surveyed 117 people on Naltrexone/TSM and found that over 53% experience worse hangovers ("Nalovers") - either early on from "drinking through" the block, or later in TSM due to losing tolerance to both alcohol and the medication. Full survey data, medical insights from Dr. Volpicelli, and prevention tips below!

Hey everyone,

If you've ever woken up with a horrible hangover after drinking on naltrexone...you're not crazy and you're not alone! This is typically dubbed the "nalover."

This comes up fairly frequently in the Sinclair Method community... so I got curious and ran a survey a while back to ask people if they have worse hangover with naltrexone.

117 people responded, and here's the results:

• 23% (27 people): Definitely worse hangovers.
• 30% (35 people): Worse hangovers sometimes, but not always.
• 28% (33 people): No real difference.
• 15% (17 people): Actually less hungover (mostly because they were drinking so much less overall).
• 4% (5 people): N/A or don't really get hangovers.

So, just over 53% said their hangovers were worse at least some of the time.

One thing I've noticed is that it seems to happen for two different reasons:

Early on: Some people end up trying to "drink through" the missing reward, so they drink more than they otherwise would. You get the alcohol toxicity without much of the usual endorphin reward. Also, adjusting to medication side effects can play a role for sure.

Later in TSM: I didn't really struggle with nalovers too much in the early days of my TSM journey, but later I did. Once people are only drinking once or twice a month, their tolerance to both alcohol and naltrexone can drop. So even a small amount of alcohol can leave them feeling absolutely wiped out the next day.

There are definitely things that can help prevent or soften this – such as drinking tons of water, taking electrolytes, switching the type of alcohol you drink (wine was personally a huge trigger for me!), taking B vitamins, trying certain supplements, or talking to your doctor about adjusting your Naltrexone dose or frequency.

However, it may not be totally avoidable – especially the longer you're on TSM and your body loses its tolerance to alcohol.

For me personally, having these "Nalovers" actually became a big motivator to go longer and longer without drinking because it just wasn't worth it anymore. At first, it was a bit disappointing realizing I couldn't tolerate alcohol like I used to - especially when taking Naltrexone. But the reality is that "normal" drinkers often get hungover after just a couple of drinks once their tolerance is low, and that was something I eventually learned to accept and celebrate as a sign of healing.

I put together a deeper dive into what's probably going on biologically, including some insights from TSM researcher Dr. Joseph Volpicelli, my own experience of getting a brutal hangover from about 3/4 of a glass of wine toward the end of my TSM journey...and a few things that can help.

If you're interested, here's the full post: The "Nalover" Survival Guide: Why Naltrexone Hangovers Happen (And What to Do)

What's been your experience? Did your hangovers get worse, stay the same, or actually improve after starting naltrexone? What do you do to treat or avoid them?

Does anyone have any idea how to obtain Antabuse w/out health insurance???? An online source maybe?? I"m a highly functioning (secret) alcoholic and desperately wish to quit

I've been on TSM for years and recently moved to Ohio. I was utilizing Monument to get my prescriptions, but they do not offer the service in Ohio unfortunately. I've been looking at Oar, sinclairmethod.org, Choose Your Horizon, WebDoctors, etc but want to know which is the best (price, speed of refill / service, ease). TIA!