A drug that cures alcoholism may be the next anti-anxiety medication

As I comment on many HN posts, I cannot exaggerate the impact that alcoholism medication has had on my life. It is only tangentially related here, as this comment is not about disulfiram but rather naltrexone, a drug with similar goals but a very different mechanism of action

This is all to say, if you or a loved one is struggling with alcoholism, I highly recommend looking into The Sinclair Method. Check out /r/alcoholism_medication or this accounts recent comment history. That community supports those that use disulfiram as well, but I cannot comment on that medication myself

The people I know who like to drink the most are also people I would say are highly anxious, which makes me wonder if they're using alcohol as self medication. Just an informal observation---not claiming a universal truth here.

as a person new to recovery, i can definitely say that alcoholism was the direct result of my social anxiety.

100% that the folks I know who are alcoholics have high anxiety. It’s not the same exact kind of anxiety in all of them, but I believe it’s at the root of their problem with alcohol.

Part of my understanding is that for at least some of these folks they never learned to deal with emotions. They never learned how to feel and accept that feelings exist. Alcohol is the agent that they utilize to help keep those feelings at a level they can manage. It’s a numbing agent.

The social chaos that these individuals because of their alcoholism is so enormous. And I’m at a point where I can see how it influences their adult children and it’s depressing. You can see how the disease is transmitted from generation to generation. Someone might be disposed towards alcoholism, but coming from an alcoholic family and the chaos that comes from that makes it even more likely that the kids will become alcoholics.

I'm currently on a naltrexone/wellbutrin combo. I started it to try to finally end an infinite binge/purge cycle I find myself stuck in (an eating disorder). I also have depression/insomnia and had been self-medicating with alcohol (really, I just drank to relax -> drank to fall asleep -> didn't fall asleep -> drank more). I wouldn't say it was a lot compared to what you think of when you think of an alcoholic but it definitely fell under the category of binge drinking nightly (~3 beers a night). I had reached a point where I figured it'd be good to stop (after reading about how easily one can develop a Thiamine deficiency) but found it... not easy. I could go a few days but living alone, wfh, etc made me really enjoy my post-work/before-bed beer ritual - it felt like the only thing distinguishing night and day.

The medication has helped all 3 issues, a lot. How much it's worked is incredible. I don't know how hard it would've been to stop alcohol without it, but I'm sure I would've failed more before succeeding. Honestly, I'm more impressed by how it's helped me manage my relationship with food. I've spent the last 15+ years obsessing over food. I still think about it far more than people without eating disorders, but my self-worth is not tied to whether or not I eat. I think my mood was better managed on my old antidepressant but things now feel... how I think "normal" is?

That said, I do need to get a medical bracelet of some sort. My doctor didn't mention exactly how naltrexone worked and it wasn't until I stumbled across /r/alcholism_medication that I realized that if I got hit by a car or had some other accident, was unconscious and administered opiates - they wouldn't work, and being on naltrexone could have harmful effects if I underwent emergency surgery if the medical personnel were unaware of my prescription.