MrsDriver70...:wave:...Welcome to SR

Some people are more senstive to the drug.. so it's impossible to know what will happen in your situation.
We are not allowed to give medical advice...so please do check with the doctor that sggested you begin it.

I see you are relatively new to sober living...please do continue to move forward without alcohol.
Recovery is so beneficial and give yourself the chance to explore a better future...:hug:

I hope you will continue to post with us...well done on your on decideing to stop drinking.

I have my own questions. I've been taking antabuse for 51 days now. No drinking, no cravings, but a small, dull soreness in my left rib, and sometimes mild panic attacks. I also take 30mg prozac per day, and 30mg Buspar per day. I needed to stop drinking, because I am a binge drinker who would go for 2 or 3 day runs of drinking non stop, when I drank. I am also a recovering addict, but have been clean for 7 years now.

LOL! It is no gamble. xD
The meaning with antabuse is to not drink AT ALL. NONE. ZERO. And in case you want to start drinking again, you shall wait 14 days. After not taking antabuse in 14 days, it will be out of your system, and therefore (of course) not affect you at all. The reason antabuse is effective for many people is because they know that they can die if drinking ON it. For some people that is the only thing that can stop them from drinking, the fear.

Okay it is very important for everyone to know that you should not do what this guy have done. He tried drinking after 3 days he write, and no one should NEVER do that, it is VERY dangerous. If you have been taking antabuse, and want to drink again, you shall wait 14 days. It is 14, not 4, so no wonder he got sick. It is possible to die when drinking on antabuse. After 14 days, it will be out of the system, and you'll be completely safe while drinking again. But NEVER wait less than 14 days. Good.
And the meaning with antabuse is not to drink on it at all. Getting sick when drinking on it is the whole purpose of antabuse. Because it will hold you from doing it.

I don't understand this. If he is serious about quiting, then why should he take something that makes it impossible for him to drink, you ask? Shouldn't it be reversed? If he is seroius about quiting, then why shouldn't he take it? If you don't want to take something that makes it impossible for you to drink, then you're not really serious about quiting. And what you did is very dangerous.

There is no "risk" unless you can't control yourself. I'm baffled how much people DON'T KNOW about antabuse.

Drinking on antabuse = dangerous.
Not drinking on antabuse = harmless.
It will be out of your system after not taking it in 14 days.
It does not affect you in ANY ways as long as you don't drink on it.
It is designed to make you very ill if you drink on, because not drinking is the purpose of antabuse, and also the purpose of quiting drinking. (Funny enough.)

Hi Fable

welcome - I appreciate your passion, but this is a discussion board - people have free choice with their opinions.

if people are interested in Antabuse they need to speak with their Dr - like many medications it won't be suitable for everyone.

D

Hi, I take Antabuse now. Other than the occasional headache(which may not be related to the drug at all) I've experienced no side effects. I have to watch the foods that I eat and avoid caffiene( it can heighten the effects of caffiene) . Basically , I eat a lot healthier in the result. I was never a morning drinker so it's been very easy for me just to take the pill with my a.m. vitamins and remove the drinking option from the day. Odd thing that I have the discipline to take a pill every day but not the discipline to drink in moderation. I don't really have cravings but I do get the occasional inner thought "Wouldn't it be nice to have a....wait I can't ...so, I won't."
I use my formerly bar time to exercise, read , focus more on my business, etc. I did a lot if research on it before asking my doctor to prescribe it for me. I know the risks if drinking on it and have no intentions on experimenting. I want to quit ..why would I experiment? Any relapse is premeditated and it can stay in your system for up to two weeks, so it gives you ample time to rethink your relapse I'm certain that had I been forced to take against my will then I would have been consumed with figuring out how to work around the pill. That wasn't my case, I talked it over with my doctor in great depth before we reached the agreement for my prescription. Committed to blood work every few weeks and to monitor my BP. So far, it's working for me.

i considered antabuse, but as someone else said, it's staying stopped that was always the hard part for me. i know myself well enought to know that i would have worked out how to drink after a while.

i needed to start recovering emotionally and mentally as well as physically. i have 40 days tomorrow and have just started an outpatient treatment program. antabuse would, for me personally, have been a crutch.

I see. It is simply about the fact that there is a person claiming that antabuse should be out of the system after 4 days, or something like that. It is really very dangerous if anyone believed that. :(
And then I wanted to state the other facts about antabuse, because it is important to know about if taking it, if you don't, there is a risk of dying from it, and many docters are not imforming their patiens (sorry about my spelling mistakes) probably about the drug, which I don't understand in itself.
Anyway, it's just that it is really important to know some of these things, I am from Denmark myself where it comes from, and every alcoholic here are taking it, and folks actually dies because they don't have this information. Also, it is effective for some people who shouldn't be afraid of it, if they just know everything about it. So yeah... People do sometimes die when taking it and not having all neccesary information about it. That is why I am very seroius about it my posts.

My 32 year old brother died as a result of taking Antabuse and drinking a couple of weeks ago. He was an alcoholic and I'm sure his liver had some damage, but he was physically healthy otherwise - exercised daily and watched what he ate. He went to AA daily and was really trying to overcome his alcoholism. Giving a drug that will kill a person if he drinks to an alcoholic seems to me to be unbelievably irresponsible - why would any doctor ever prescribe this?

I'm so sorry for your loss Dorothy, and for the pain you must feel.

People take antabuse in an attempt to stop drinking. Sometimes, sadly, taking the drug isn't enough for some of us.

D

Thank you
 

Thank God for this thread. I'm getting married this Saturday which is a exciting but stressful time. To top it all off My partners brother recently died and today was his funeral, again a very sad stressful day full of tears and also a wake at a social club where people were all drinking getting merry and remembering ***** in their own way, again a major trigger. Grief, emotions, alcohol everywhere. Then my partner is greeted by her brothers best friend who gives her a warm embrace calling her sweetheart and saying "you've got my number ok?". He's a big muscley hunky type, especially to my shorter slight frame. O.K it s her brothers funeral, they're just being comforting, then she walks off and whispers in not 1 but 2 of her families ear "I've just ****". OK exit stage left. got 2 bottles of pink lemonade and went home. not doing the job, Googled how bad the effects were and here i am. thank you all for sound advice x

Welcome Skoozby
So you're on antabuse?

D

I took it daily for 3 months and absolutely would not even consider attempting to drink while taking it. I quit for 10 days and then slowly had one little drink at a time to make sure it was "safe." Of course, there was nothing safe about drinking because I still ended up in detox because of it. Should have stuck with the Antabuse, which I am taking again now.

well I love ant abuse, but I have to take a high dose for it to work, which makes me lethargic. its another tool in my toolbox that helps keep me sober. It stops the mental obsession, because I know I cant drink. There is no "will I or wont I". I wont. I had a client who died drinking on it. I find it helpful. Im surprised it has such a bad wrap on this site. But each to their own. If I took a daily standard dose I can drink on it and not get sick. However, for people who repetitively do that you can get toxicity which damages body organs. so that is also terrible for your body. If I don't have the mental obsession, I can deal with any physical cravings.

Does it have a bad rap? I must not have seen that. I'd wonder why it would, too, if that's the case. My feeling is, if it works to keep you off the booze and it ain't hurting you or anybody else, don't knock it.

well just to update, i didn't give it a go, i googled my closest AA meeting and went there for support. when my fiance got home all became clear. It was me mishearing what she had said. im glad i listened to my sober head and took the right steps. thank you all for your replies x

I feel that I must chime in here and defend antabuse. I realize it is an old drug that has been around for ages and in the past has gotten a bad rap because people were prescribed it who weren't totally committed to stopping drinking. To prescribe something that can be very dangerous if a person drinks on it, to a person who doesn't want to be on it and isn't committed to using it as prescribed is irresponsible. A previous poster concluded that to prescribe a drug to an alcoholic that could kill him if he drinks is irresponsible. The whole purpose of antabuse is to prescribe it to alcoholics. This is who it is intended for, and the person who takes it should be fully aware that they can die if they drink while taking it. It is a deterrent, and nobody should take it with the idea of trying to "beat the system" by drinking while taking it. Waste of time, waste of money, and dangerous! My primary care physician refused to prescribe it for me, as he says he does not prescribe it for anyone. Probably doesn't want the liability if he prescribes it and someone drinks on it and dies from it. I had to go outside my provider network to find someone who would prescribe it, a physician who had known me for 30 years and gives me the benefit of the doubt when I tell him what I need and why. That being said, being fully informed of the potential side effects that could happen if I drink while taking it, it has been a life changer for me. I started out taking 500 mg for 2 weeks and then taking 250 mg daily now, and it has been 30 days. As one person said, unless you drink, you may not notice that you are even on anything. I haven't noticed anything different since I have been taking it except the certainty that I can't, under any circumstances, have a drink. One person said that they have to take more than the normal dose to be effective. I don't know how they would know this unless they tried drinking on it. I could be taking a placebo for all I know, since being fully informed of the dangerous side effects, there is no way I'll drink and find out. When I first started taking it my daughter asked me if it works. I told her I imagine it does but I'm not going to try to find out, since it was my choice to take it, so why would I want to sabotage it? I was told that I needed to make sure I have been off of it for 14 days before I could even THINK of taking a drink again, and by then the craving probably will pass. I also wonder sometimes why I have the discipline to take a pill every day but not the discipline to quit drinking on my own. As someone else said, it is the most valuable tool in my toolbox, it takes all the guesswork out of whether I will drink or not for the next 14 days. I have 30 days sober right now, which is 12 days short of my record so far, and already I know I will surpass that record, since I would have to be off antabuse for 14 days before I could take a drink safely, and I took it today, and plan to continue to take it. There are always horror stories about anything. As a previous poster said, the main thing is to be fully informed and to make a decision based on all the facts.

Thanks scintillady. I think that kind of explains now why some do not like the whole idea of Antabuse. It is true that if someone is hellbent on drinking no matter what, they'll still try to do it on Antabuse and possibly risk their life. I take it precisely because I know I want to quit forever and would not even risk a single sip of alcohol while taking it. Not a chance! Even if all it did was make me puke, that would be enough to keep me away from booze. For me, it works as an excellent insurance policy.