Time to cut down - its going to be tough!!

can you buy these or do they have to be prescribed?

thanks

Prescription in the UK. Though it can be bought online.

UK is a bit of a lottery. Some postcodes will (from what I've read) give you a prescription if you ask for one. Other places will make you go through counselling first before letting you have any.

It can also depend on your doctor. Some just refuse to prescribe it.

Dependency is a physiological condition and it can be successfully treated.

I tried to 'pray it away' for years, as did my aunt. My aunt is now dead through alcohol and I am now 5 years into recovery by using a clinically-proven and scientifically tested treatment for my alcohol dependency.

Having Faith is fine. I believe in God, myself, and am spiritual. But to claim that HE will answer your prayers and get rid of the hold that the evil one has over someone is neglecting to mention all of the wonderful scientific and medical advances that we now know about.

Besides, what if the OP doesn't believe in Him? Is he destined to spend the rest of his life with the evil one having a hold over him, struggling with his sobriety each day?

Dependency is indeed a physological condition, let me tell you about my experience. I prayed and prayed but nothing happened, then i was prompted to to go to an AA meeting. I shared that prayer was not working, GOD foes not care, to that and elderly gentlemen replied, HE cares thats why after all these years, although aggainst your wish you are now sitting here. GOD works in mysterious ways, going medical is one of them. First he needs a real push and courage and strength to take the plunge, that resolve i believe only GOD can provide

Only an alcoholic can understand the mind of an alcoholic, the fear, anxiety, helplessness, guilt, remorse and a whole lot of things. A doctor will only treat the symptoms, he would have no idea how it feels being in the pit feels like. only an alcoholic can understand the helplessness. its like giving birth to a child, one can read about it, can explain it, see it, sympathise and what not, but only the woman who has given birth can truly relate what it is like

Dear Joltbolt. You are obviously a very strong believer which is fine but i actually agree with Joanna. Medication is the way forward. God will not stop you from buying that bottle since your mind is obsessed with drinking only and you do not care. Robin

So, what if the OP doesn't believe in God? Is he destined to never find the solution to his illness?

If someone has cancer, we don't ask that the person treating us has experienced cancer themselves.

If someone has depression, we don't ask that the person treating us has experienced depression themselves.

If someone is seeing a counsellor because they have been sexually abused, we don't ask that the counsellor they see has been sexually abused themsevles.

You see, that is the thing with science - it works whether someone believes in it or not. Belief is great, and as I say, I do believe in God myself, but that doesn't negate the need for science. If someone wishes to pray then that is there decision of course, but it isn't a condition of recovery from dependency that someone does pray.

It seems to me that dependency is the ONLY physiological condition where people continue to believe that only someone with the condition can help someone else with the condition.

I agree that finding Jesus is only going to work for a limited number of people (research seems to indicate that AA has a very low success rate) but on the other hand finding a purpose in life is probably just as important as taking medication.

Alcohol was the purpose of life and needs to be replaced with a new one.

For some, that might be God. For the time being I'm using work as my purpose while I think of something better to replace it with.

Cats?

Cats would be a good one 😃 I do love animals.

What I love so much about The Sinclair Method is not only it's success, but also that the success usually happen quite slowly, and this gradual change gives people a chance to really work towards figuring these things out. In my experience, family tends to take it's place as a purpose in life again for those with families. For me, it was focusing on family, primarily - enjoying spending time with them instead of hiding and drinking all the time - and that is followed by those things in life which gives me a huge natural 'high'. Such as the outdoors etc, etc.

And of course, setting up and running a charity to help others with alcohol dependency is a mixture of hard work, dedication, putdowns and success, too. There are so many highs and lows involved that it wouldn't be right for someone very new to recovery who isn't really sure how they feel emotionally, yet.

This all happened quite slowly for me, which I think was good. After 20+ years drinking, a lot of it was very new and I had to learn a lot, which also helped me fill that void.

I definitely think there is nothing worse than something trying to get immediate abstinence and then wondering 'now what'? That can make some people very vulnerable to both relapse and/or being taken advantage of.

The Sinclair Method is indeed a good one, the problem is the dedication to take those pills diligently . Your alcoholic brain talks to you, it would provide justification like since you already have the cure, why fret, miss the pills every now and then and enjoy the high, if it gets really bad you can then take them again. For some it works well, not for most. They get into this vicious cycle. That's torture. I am having a bad day, need a boost, ill miss the pills today.

@alex01280: AA works 100% of the time without an ounce of a doubt provided we follow it to the tee. Nowadays AA meetings are a bunch of people sitting around and sharing their sob stories. There is no hope shared not any importance placed on the 12 steps which is the core of AA. I have met people who have been attending meetings for years and are still in step 3-4, the big book clearly says what needs to be done and do it fast. I luckily had a good sponsor and I finished my 12 steps in 15 days. Its hard, I agree, we need to be brutally honest and that’s the reason most shy away from it. He then assigned me two people straight away to sponsor and point them in the right direction. The message of AA has been diluted and hence the overall dismal recovery rates. The first question you should ask a potential sponsor is how long did he take to do the 12 steps”, if the answer is anything more than 30 days, run from him.

My first priority are the people who need help, not my business, not my friends not even my family. If I get a call at 3 am from one of the members I am sponsoring, I jump out of bed and drive down to him. By helping others I am not doing a favour to them, I am doing a favour to myself, it keeps me sober and I made a solemn promise to GOD that I’ll help as I have been helped.

That's funny what you say about missing those pills when the alcohol brain speaks to you..... you'd think that would be how it is, right? Except it's NOT! The entire skipping the pill thing is a fallacy.

In the past nearly 5 years, I have personally taken over 800 people through this treatment. With the correct support for that individual, non-compliance is not an issue. The number is very, very, very small indeed. And, in over 120+ double blind clinical tests (the 'gold standard' of clinical tests), the non-compliance rate was around 10% AND of that 10% about half of those had nothing to do with desire to skip the pill, but those few people had side effect issues that they could not overcome. So, in reality, less than 5% of people were non-compliant through their own 'alcoholic brain' telling them not to take the pill.

Of course, there is no treatment method out there for any condition that is 100% successful, 100% of the time. Even AA. Your statement about AA being 100% succesful if it is followed to the tee is utter rubbish.

I don't want to get into an argument about which treatment is best. That isn't why I am here. I am here to provide people with information about ALL the options available. Once someone has all the options, then they can chose which option is best for them - but oddly, when they make that decision, most people tend to opt towards the treatment methods that are evidence-based.

Argument, no thats not me. you could be right, but dont rubbish something you have no information about. I was just sharing my experience, not forcing anyone to adopt my recovery method. they have to decide for themselves. the primary motive should be Dans recovery, tools can be anything. The mention of GOD inevitably invokes hostility, once upon a time i was like that as well. Things change,

have a good day

FYI, I spent over 10 years in AA, so its not something that i have no information about

Have you done the 12 steps, were you totally honest, how long did it take, did you really understand the steps, care to explain the 3rd step, was it easy to get your ego shattered, 10 years is awafully long time, that itself tells me you did not understand the programme

Yes is the simple answer to that. I went through it with my sponsor, a lovely lady who had many years of sobriety. If there was anyone in my meeting who offered the most thorough help with the program and the steps, it was her. I had the best teacher in AA that I could have had.

But hey, always go back to that old statement that if AA didn't work for someone then it was their fault because they didn't work hard enough, or because they weren't honest enough etc etc.

Instead, how about it didn't work for me because I had a physiological illness and changes in my brain caused by repeated alcohol use needed some additional medical treatment to reverse? And then I also sought professional advice of someone to help me through other aspects of my life which needed looking at, too.

My program was between me, myself and my God of my understanding. I have no will, nor desire, to explain the 3rd step. It's over 5 years ago now since I left AA and my life is better than it ever was during my 10 years or more of AA and the constant relapse/shame cycle that it put me in.

AA works for some, not all. It's utterly ridiculous to say that it works 100% and that if it doesn't work, it's the fault of the person who wasn't 'honest enough'. It worked for you. It didn't work for me (or my aunt). I found what worked for me outside of AA. It's as ridiculous as me claiming that The Sinclair Method works for 100% of people.

If AA works for some, and The Sinclair Method works for others, why can we not include both in the conversation? That will achieve an even better rate of recovery.

The majority of us that are proponents of medically-assisted treatment are quite willing to ensure that a person has ALL the options to them, and uses as many as they like in their recovery.

Well you shared your experience and i shared mine, just fyi, calm and plesent words can also convey the same msg, harsh words push people away, anyway the important thing is Dan's recovery. Dan try what you feel comfortable with, if you succeed excellent, try everything if not. the only thing you shouldnt do is give up, all the best mate. if i could recover anyone can.