Hi Fuzzy. Interesting clip. Do you believe AA is a good way to get to the 5 month point that he refers to?

Nothing is going to work until a person is ready. Give a person a range of options on a menu to select from to treat alcoholism, they select one and they are ready to quit and are most open to that type of help...

The trick for me is as I progress in my life without booze the things that helped me stay sober change and I have to be open to it...

FW this video left me unsure what this bloke was talking about so googled him up and found some info on Wikipedia. From this I understand that by using naltrexone it blocks the receptions in the brain so the person reduces their drinking.

I also notice in the piece that if the person on this method wants to drink they have to use naltrexone prior to each drinking session else the 'receptors' re establish. This use is lifelong.

I know there are others here who use this method and they state they are successful using this, which I say fantastic.

Heaving said that I would suggest that by having to use the drug to drink this way is not a cure, I suggest that this method is a method of managing the use of alcohol not a cure. I suggest that a cure would mean after a prescribed period of time the person could drink and not having the 'receptors' re-establishing without the ongoing use of the drug.

And knowing the back lash this will cause I would suggest this also shows how alcohol manages the person. If the person has to use the drug to manage the drink who or what is truely in control???

Just G8 thoughts and I re-iterate I am not against people using this method to get their lives back on track all power to them. My concern is using the word cure.

This sounds like an AA meeting, where they argue over the words recovered, recovering and cure. That one of the reason that I quit going to AA..

First, naltrexone is not meant to be used for the rest of one's life.

However, even if it were taken for a lifetime as daily management of alcoholism with a pill is that any different than a daily reprieve from alcoholism based on the maintenance of a spiritual condition in AA?

I'd say from the view point of doing or taking something daily for the rest of one's live there is no difference. Contrasting the two methods used separately by themselves the question becomes one of method. Scientific pharmacology or faith...

Would one manage diabetes solely with faith? Might diabetes best be managed with meds and a variety of self selected support systems to help with motivation to maintain good diet and exercise?

Therefore, in my mind there is a place for naltrexone in AA, if one chooses to make naltrexone and AA part of their support system...

You know, if hanging on to a blue rabbit's foot helps someone in not drinking, who is anyone else to say yea or nay? This horse is way past dead...

Hugs,
Dennis

Z18 your reference about naltrexone I concede to your experience, I have not had any involvement of this drug and was only going on what was written in Wikipedia.

In reference about diabetes is what I am saying, provided people take insulin plus other stuff they live a very normal life. The moment they stop taking insulin the disease reasserts itself. Therefore the sufferer is not cured.

It concerns me the word cure is used around a person who is alcoholic, it has been my experience to see/hear people say I have not drunk for a period of time, I am cured, now I can drink again.

Again I re-iterate I do not care what method is used to help people get their life back on track even if it involves hanging up a blue rabbit foot or running around the coffee table in their birthday suit yelling out hail marys.

Just G8 thoughts.

Fortunately, naltrexone is not at all like hanging up a blue rabbit foot or running around a coffee table. It is a medication that is proven to reduce cravings and is an effective tool in recovery.

I for one am glad that the medical profession and scientific community is studying the effects of alcohol on the brain and looking to solutions for alcoholism that include pharmacology in addition to therapies such as CBT and REBT and faith-based groups.

The funny thing for me is I haven't even watched the video and I still want to comment :))

Something about the word cure presses a button and I want to go flogging horses that were probably never even there! No comment, absolutely no comment - this one is beyond my experience :)

Nice to take a giggle at my own expense though. Opinionated - I could argue the weight of sand with an arab or the price pork with a butcher :)

P

Where is DS like button for paulokes statements?

Aw shucks Bill...I'm blushing :)

I think we need a 'like' button...and maybe a 'dislike' button...and maybe a 'I have no clue what that means but it seems real deep and meaningful' just for Billy :)

P

Plaul you think a garden variety Alkie can be a artichoke or just a plain ol head of lettuce or cherry radish ? Ha!!!
Billy

I think that, to each his own but a better title for this would have been, "A treatment for alcoholism" because there is no cure, only control.

God Bless!

I agree with other post - I have always wanted a like button for comments that really make me say YES!! There are certainly a few here that are super.

A like button... Sounds great, but me playing to the peanut gallery would get 10X worse than it already is...