How I eventually sorted my alcohol problem

zero_nine

"I beg you, please give this some considerations. How I did it: using The Sinclair Method, outlined below"
How I did it: I should say first, that I haven't quit completely, but alcohol is no longer a problem and is barely a factor in my life.

But for the first time in my adult life I no longer have a problem with alcohol. I tried abstinance 20+ times and eventually I gave up giving up. One morning I was really hungover and went to the bookstore and bought every book that was available on alcoholism. I was still drunk and therefore paid something like 200 UK pounds for the lot. It was completely insane, goodness knows what the store clerk must have thought.

Anyway I quickly glanced through all the books including a book called "The Cure for Alcoholism" by Roy Eskapa. At that time I took a quick look at it and saw that it contained rather blurred Excel graphs and generally looked more like a PhD thesis than a self help book. I therefore discarded it and read other titles such as "The Easyway to Control Alcohol" (worked for a while), Rational Recovery (same), Cleaning Up (Biography of this bitter woman, quit reading half way through), The End of My Addiction (really interesting book, didn't help me, but well worth a read).

I dabbled in counselling but I didn't like because I spend enough time inside my own head without being further encouraged to be more reflective. Eventually I gave "The Cure for Alcoholism" by Roy Eskapa a proper read one morning I was hungover to see what his deal was and finally everything made sense to me. "Burn the libraries, for their value is in this book" [of alcoholism books]. Basically, it describes the physiology of alcohol addiction which is controlled by naturally occuring opiates. That is, every time you drink opiates are realeased which reinforce the brain circuitary involved with drinking. So if you are drinking beer, at the pub with friends, at home or drinking in the gutter, these behaviours will be a little bit easier for you to do in the future. That is how you learn to become an alcoholic/problem drinker. However, if you drink the alcohol but block the action of the opiates then over time these brain circuits begin to weaker until eventually you no longer crave or think about alcohol and you can drink easily with control, although you may not even want to drink at all. The de-addicting process takes at least 4 months. BTW the opiates are blocked by taking a harmless and non-addictive medication called Naltrexone (it is an opiate antagonist).

I have been on this process for about 4 months and although it had its ups and downs, my improvement is truly a miracle. For example in the past week I did not drink more than 4 drinks in one sitting whereas before it would have been every time a binge of about 15. Its not that I even had to try to drink less, the contrary is true. I had to try to drink the four. Apparently this will reduce even further since the de-addicting process can continue for up to 3 years.

Anyway, I hope this helps some of you, if you want more testimonials/information go to here (amazon):

http://www.amazon.com/Cure-Alcoholism-Willpower-Abstinence-Discomfort/dp/1933771550/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289128626&sr=8-1

Three things to note:
1. You do not have to be an alcoholic to gain benefit from this treatment- some people drink more than they want to and this will help too.

2. If you are achieving long term abstinance, congratulations! and do not break abstinance for this treatment.

3. Cure rate during clinical trials (as defined as safe drinking, by WHO standards) were 78% (which is really high for an alcohol addiction treatment). Factors affecting the 22% include compliance- Naltrexone must be taken an hour before each & every drinking session (forever) otherwise it will not work. Also, there is a small sub-set who it does not work for (in clinics <10%). For these people it is thought that it is another reinforcement system apart from the opiate system which is perpetuating the addiciton.

Hope this helps somebody as much as its helped me.

peace

ZE

mathepac

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5484285.ece

some info published last year

zero_nine

Thanks for that reply buddy, I wasn't aware of this article.

Johnny Favourite

I have been using Sinclair Method for two months now with Naltrexone.

Unbelievable.

I used to black out every time I drank. I have not blacked out once since I started using it.

I have my life back.