Why can't I effing get Antabuse???
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Posts: 4
Why can't I effing get Antabuse???
About a year ago, after going strictly the AA route for over a year and never get more than 33 days, I went to my GP and told him I was an alcoholic, that my drinking pattern was very impulsive, (i.e. I would go for weeks without a drink, then some little thing would set me off into a binge) and that I wanted to get on Antabuse so I could get some serious time built up. He said that Antabuse didn't work because alkies always stop taking it, and that I should take Naltrexone instead.
Six months later, I went to a shrink. I told him that I'd been taking Naltrexone for six months, and that while it had been making me nauseous, and that had made me slightly less likely to drink, I was still in the same pattern (going to meetings, holding it together for a few weeks at a time, but ultimately never getting past 5 or 6 weeks). I mentioned that I had taken the medication every single goddamned morning, whether I drank that night (or the night before) or not, and that I thought Antabuse would be a better choice for me. The shrink said no, that it didn't work because alkies always stop taking it, and that I should go on topiramate instead.
Now I've been on topiramate for six months. I've also been through an outpatient (SUPER 12 STEPPY!!!!) rehab program, which won't give any medication. Throughout it all I'VE TAKEN MY MEDICATION EVERY GODDAMN MORNING. And the longest I've made it is 56 days. I know that 90 days is that first hurdle I need to make it over and I'm really trying to get there. I went BACK to my shrink and ask for Antabuse again TODAY and he said no AGAIN and instead offered to up the topiramate and put me on an SSRI.
Here's my question: I am a chronic relapser with some other mild-to-moderate mental health issues who is just trying to tackle the alcohol dependence first. My relapses always happen out of impulsivity: Something bad happens that I never could have anticipated when I woke up that morning, and so I get it in my head to go drink. It seems to me that I am the PERFECT candidate for Antabuse. If I took it that morning - back when I never could have anticipated the something bad happening - then I'm basically stuck and can't take the impulsive drink. YAY ME!
So why won't any of my doctors give me a goddamn prescription???
Frustrated,
Not The Dog I Was
Six months later, I went to a shrink. I told him that I'd been taking Naltrexone for six months, and that while it had been making me nauseous, and that had made me slightly less likely to drink, I was still in the same pattern (going to meetings, holding it together for a few weeks at a time, but ultimately never getting past 5 or 6 weeks). I mentioned that I had taken the medication every single goddamned morning, whether I drank that night (or the night before) or not, and that I thought Antabuse would be a better choice for me. The shrink said no, that it didn't work because alkies always stop taking it, and that I should go on topiramate instead.
Now I've been on topiramate for six months. I've also been through an outpatient (SUPER 12 STEPPY!!!!) rehab program, which won't give any medication. Throughout it all I'VE TAKEN MY MEDICATION EVERY GODDAMN MORNING. And the longest I've made it is 56 days. I know that 90 days is that first hurdle I need to make it over and I'm really trying to get there. I went BACK to my shrink and ask for Antabuse again TODAY and he said no AGAIN and instead offered to up the topiramate and put me on an SSRI.
Here's my question: I am a chronic relapser with some other mild-to-moderate mental health issues who is just trying to tackle the alcohol dependence first. My relapses always happen out of impulsivity: Something bad happens that I never could have anticipated when I woke up that morning, and so I get it in my head to go drink. It seems to me that I am the PERFECT candidate for Antabuse. If I took it that morning - back when I never could have anticipated the something bad happening - then I'm basically stuck and can't take the impulsive drink. YAY ME!
So why won't any of my doctors give me a goddamn prescription???
Frustrated,
Not The Dog I Was
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,442
I have no experience with medication to make me not crave, I'm afraid.
I have a lot of experience with only sporadic success tho...I know how frustrating that is.
A lot of people simply can't take antabuse for various reasons...maybe you're one of these people?...I really have no idea.
I think you need to ask your Drs why, NotTheDogIWas.
D
I have a lot of experience with only sporadic success tho...I know how frustrating that is.
A lot of people simply can't take antabuse for various reasons...maybe you're one of these people?...I really have no idea.
I think you need to ask your Drs why, NotTheDogIWas.
D
Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: LA - Lower Alabama
Posts: 5,068
This is myexperience, not medical advise.
Antabuse cannot be taken if you have a bad liver (as many of us do) as it causes its own problems. Also if you do drink while on antabuse it call make you very, very ill. Deaths are not unheard of.
Antabuse cannot be taken if you have a bad liver (as many of us do) as it causes its own problems. Also if you do drink while on antabuse it call make you very, very ill. Deaths are not unheard of.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 147
I tried a few of the meds early in my drinking career. They never worked very long. I'd always quit taking them so I could drink. I stopped Antabuse one day and drank the next. I broke out in hives and just kept drinking. I was lucky I didnt get really ill.
After 25 more years drinking, I finally went to AA, got a sponsor and worked the steps. The compulsion and the desire to drink left me.
After 25 more years drinking, I finally went to AA, got a sponsor and worked the steps. The compulsion and the desire to drink left me.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: SoCal CA
Posts: 1,319
Instead of focusing on the magic pill, how about focusing on sobriety and why you want to stay sober. Focus on taking daily action to stop your impulsiveness.
A pill might help with cravings, and a pill might even make you put off drinking for longer periods of time, but as long as you continue to want to drink you will eventually end up drinking again. Fix the problem at its root and figure out why you continue to want to drink.
A pill might help with cravings, and a pill might even make you put off drinking for longer periods of time, but as long as you continue to want to drink you will eventually end up drinking again. Fix the problem at its root and figure out why you continue to want to drink.
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Join Date: Sep 2010
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Hi Not the Dog I Was. I like your screen name. 
I know what it's like to stop and start several times, I learned how to perfect that over the past two years. I'm now at my most successful time sober at 4+ months, and I attribute much of the success to being proactive about recovery. I totally know what you mean about having the impulsive feelings. My solution was to plan for those feelings and anticipate them and learn how to deal with them before they happened.
Sorry I don't have any experience with Antabuse, but IMO no drug will make you quit.
Best wishes, I hope you get the answers you need.
I know what it's like to stop and start several times, I learned how to perfect that over the past two years. I'm now at my most successful time sober at 4+ months, and I attribute much of the success to being proactive about recovery. I totally know what you mean about having the impulsive feelings. My solution was to plan for those feelings and anticipate them and learn how to deal with them before they happened.
Sorry I don't have any experience with Antabuse, but IMO no drug will make you quit.
Best wishes, I hope you get the answers you need.
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Posts: 272
Originally Posted by NotTheDogIWas 
About a year ago, after going strictly the AA route for over a year and never get more than 33 days, I went to my GP and told him I was an alcoholic, that my drinking pattern was very impulsive, (i.e. I would go for weeks without a drink, then some little thing would set me off into a binge) and that I wanted to get on Antabuse so I could get some serious time built up. He said that Antabuse didn't work because alkies always stop taking it, and that I should take Naltrexone instead.
Six months later, I went to a shrink. I told him that I'd been taking Naltrexone for six months, and that while it had been making me nauseous, and that had made me slightly less likely to drink, I was still in the same pattern (going to meetings, holding it together for a few weeks at a time, but ultimately never getting past 5 or 6 weeks). I mentioned that I had taken the medication every single goddamned morning, whether I drank that night (or the night before) or not, and that I thought Antabuse would be a better choice for me. The shrink said no, that it didn't work because alkies always stop taking it, and that I should go on topiramate instead.
Now I've been on topiramate for six months. I've also been through an outpatient (SUPER 12 STEPPY!!!!) rehab program, which won't give any medication. Throughout it all I'VE TAKEN MY MEDICATION EVERY GODDAMN MORNING. And the longest I've made it is 56 days. I know that 90 days is that first hurdle I need to make it over and I'm really trying to get there. I went BACK to my shrink and ask for Antabuse again TODAY and he said no AGAIN and instead offered to up the topiramate and put me on an SSRI.
Here's my question: I am a chronic relapser with some other mild-to-moderate mental health issues who is just trying to tackle the alcohol dependence first. My relapses always happen out of impulsivity: Something bad happens that I never could have anticipated when I woke up that morning, and so I get it in my head to go drink. It seems to me that I am the PERFECT candidate for Antabuse. If I took it that morning - back when I never could have anticipated the something bad happening - then I'm basically stuck and can't take the impulsive drink. YAY ME!
So why won't any of my doctors give me a goddamn prescription???
Frustrated,
Not The Dog I Was
Six months later, I went to a shrink. I told him that I'd been taking Naltrexone for six months, and that while it had been making me nauseous, and that had made me slightly less likely to drink, I was still in the same pattern (going to meetings, holding it together for a few weeks at a time, but ultimately never getting past 5 or 6 weeks). I mentioned that I had taken the medication every single goddamned morning, whether I drank that night (or the night before) or not, and that I thought Antabuse would be a better choice for me. The shrink said no, that it didn't work because alkies always stop taking it, and that I should go on topiramate instead.
Now I've been on topiramate for six months. I've also been through an outpatient (SUPER 12 STEPPY!!!!) rehab program, which won't give any medication. Throughout it all I'VE TAKEN MY MEDICATION EVERY GODDAMN MORNING. And the longest I've made it is 56 days. I know that 90 days is that first hurdle I need to make it over and I'm really trying to get there. I went BACK to my shrink and ask for Antabuse again TODAY and he said no AGAIN and instead offered to up the topiramate and put me on an SSRI.
Here's my question: I am a chronic relapser with some other mild-to-moderate mental health issues who is just trying to tackle the alcohol dependence first. My relapses always happen out of impulsivity: Something bad happens that I never could have anticipated when I woke up that morning, and so I get it in my head to go drink. It seems to me that I am the PERFECT candidate for Antabuse. If I took it that morning - back when I never could have anticipated the something bad happening - then I'm basically stuck and can't take the impulsive drink. YAY ME!
So why won't any of my doctors give me a goddamn prescription???
Frustrated,
Not The Dog I Was
Ooooh I feel your frustration. Loud and clear.
It seems that your doctors won't prescribe Antabuse because they assume you'll stop taking it so you can drink (or even worse, drink anyway)? Is there any basis to this assumption? It doesn't sound like it, but you know... Impulses are fairly compelling - to say the least.
In my thinking-about-considering-thinking-about-quitting-maybe days, I'd have given the docs my first-born for Antabuse. There's no way in hell I'd have drunk on that stuff, and I thought what a relief it would be not to be physically able to drink.
I have a feeling (and this is NOT medically based) that Antabuse is less prescribed these days...? It seems to be somewhat passe and replaced, indeed, by Naltrexone, Topiramate, Campral and such things.
I'm only 13 days in so I've no business advising someone who has achieved 56 days (wow). Forgive me, but FWIW, I totally agree with Supercrew and the others - address the compulsions first. Find out what happens to knock you off course, and work out a way to deal with it. Easier said than done, I know. But if they're not giving you Antabuse (which may not even be the answer), you ain't got much choice. And you'll have to figure out the compulsions anyway at some point - meds or no meds.
When I first saw my addiction shrink there was no talk of any medication for cravings. Only valium for the detox (and now an anti-depressant). He has a fairly holistic approach - lifestyle-based. But by the time I saw him, guess what, I REALLY wanted to stop and everything was in synch.
Not to sound nauseating or anything (I'm a serious baby with this, I realise) but I've had no cravings. I've had plenty of angst and despair over the whole thing, but no cravings.
In fact, I'm getting a bit scared by tales of relapse :-) But in a good way - I'll be on my guard once I get off this pink cloud and reality bites.
Thanks for your post and best of luck to you,
BB
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: CO.
Posts: 141
ball, ball, ball!
That means I've got it. Find a new doc and get him or her. Does it help? yes. have I had relapses as a result of taking myself off of it? yes. Am I at a point at which I can go alone without antabuse? no,no,no. It is tough to be the gatekeeper, but for some of us it works. I hope this helps. Please feel free to respond.
PN
PN
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 119
I don't think doctors like any of those drugs. They are old and the patents have expired. There's no money in it anymore. They would love to get you on the newest antidepressant though. When the patent on a drug expires the price literally falls by a factor of 100. I'm just saying there are financial and political considerations that motivate doctors. It's not always about the patient. I know I've said this a thousand times on SR before, but please be very suspicious of doctors. The whole industry is a cartel, protected by law.
Forward we go...side by side-Rest In Peace
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Serene In Dixie
Posts: 36,740
I don't know why your doctors prescribe any medication rather than another...or why you need a medication.
I do know when I began working my AA steps I went from shaky sobriety into solid recovery...
If AA is not working for you....why not check out other options? Please read the link below
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...formation.html
Welcome to our SR Alcoholism Forum...
I do know when I began working my AA steps I went from shaky sobriety into solid recovery...
If AA is not working for you....why not check out other options? Please read the link below
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...formation.html
Welcome to our SR Alcoholism Forum...
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: « USA » Recovered with AVRT (Rational Recovery) ___________
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There are potential side effects from Disulfiram (Antabuse). It was originally used in the manufacture of rubber, after all. In any case, the concept of using Antabuse is one of psychological threat ("drink and get really, really sick"). It is not a long term solution any more than a gun to your head ("drink and die") would be. Almost everyone tests the water by drinking on it at least once to see what actually happens, and more than a few simply stop taking it once they see the result.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Posts: 4
Thank you everyone. I am frustrated. Not just with doctors, but myself, this disease, life. I so want to be done with this. At least done suffering. But every time I start to get a little time together and the suffering starts to clear up and I begin to see how I could have a happy, sober life, something happens and I respond by drinking and I'm just right back in the sh*t all over again.
The antabuse just seems like a way to get some real clean time under my belt. Despite the fact that I'm not the world's biggest fan, I have done some step work, but it's hard to do when you keep relapsing, can't keep sponsors because you're too ashamed to admit you've messed up AGAIN, etc. I'm e-mailing my GP and am basically pleading my case to him, so we'll see what he says. It just can't keep going on like this.
The antabuse just seems like a way to get some real clean time under my belt. Despite the fact that I'm not the world's biggest fan, I have done some step work, but it's hard to do when you keep relapsing, can't keep sponsors because you're too ashamed to admit you've messed up AGAIN, etc. I'm e-mailing my GP and am basically pleading my case to him, so we'll see what he says. It just can't keep going on like this.
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 3,677
Self-definition.
Originally Posted by NotTheDogIWas
Thank you everyone. I am frustrated. Not just with doctors, but myself, this disease, life. I so want to be done with this. At least done suffering. But every time I start to get a little time together and the suffering starts to clear up and I begin to see how I could have a happy, sober life, something happens and I respond by drinking and I'm just right back in the sh*t all over again.
The antabuse just seems like a way to get some real clean time under my belt. Despite the fact that I'm not the world's biggest fan, I have done some step work, but it's hard to do when you keep relapsing, can't keep sponsors because you're too ashamed to admit you've messed up AGAIN, etc. I'm e-mailing my GP and am basically pleading my case to him, so we'll see what he says. It just can't keep going on like this.
The antabuse just seems like a way to get some real clean time under my belt. Despite the fact that I'm not the world's biggest fan, I have done some step work, but it's hard to do when you keep relapsing, can't keep sponsors because you're too ashamed to admit you've messed up AGAIN, etc. I'm e-mailing my GP and am basically pleading my case to him, so we'll see what he says. It just can't keep going on like this.
You've defined yourself as a "chronic relapser", and the label "took".
Now that you have done that, whenever that happened, you forge ahead through life with that expectation of yourself.
No drug can take the place of the decision to live your life as a non-ETOH-user. You haven't made that decision yet. Maybe you never will. I don't see your ever being able to do that as long as you believe that some drug exists out there that will force the new label on you.
Any time any substance abuser sets up a system whereby they will not use "because they can't" (i.e., a job interview, a drug test, an ETOH bracelet on their ankle, a drug like Antabuse that will make you sick if you drink ETOH, somebody else might get mad if you do, etc. etc. etc.), they are destined to fail.
Sometimes in the literature this mind set will be described as a "disability conviction". Your self-described attribute as a chronic-relapser has become a belief system you may have a hard time shedding.
There are no "catches" to living your life as a non-substance-abuser. Nobody to own up to, no tests to avoid, to traps to fall into. It's a simple decision, but sometimes hard to live by.
I'd set about redefining yourself. Your current label (chronic relapser) has set a standard for you that you have been very good at meeting.
FT
~sb
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: MD
Posts: 15,967
I would think the doctor knows you can go 33 days, so why take the antabuse? It's about self control at that point. Find a program that you can follow that would eliminate your need to get drunk! There are many out there to choose from!
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 147
Originally Posted by NotTheDogIWas
Thank you everyone. I am frustrated. Not just with doctors, but myself, this disease, life. I so want to be done with this. At least done suffering. But every time I start to get a little time together and the suffering starts to clear up and I begin to see how I could have a happy, sober life, something happens and I respond by drinking and I'm just right back in the sh*t all over again.
The antabuse just seems like a way to get some real clean time under my belt. Despite the fact that I'm not the world's biggest fan, I have done some step work, but it's hard to do when you keep relapsing, can't keep sponsors because you're too ashamed to admit you've messed up AGAIN, etc. I'm e-mailing my GP and am basically pleading my case to him, so we'll see what he says. It just can't keep going on like this.
The antabuse just seems like a way to get some real clean time under my belt. Despite the fact that I'm not the world's biggest fan, I have done some step work, but it's hard to do when you keep relapsing, can't keep sponsors because you're too ashamed to admit you've messed up AGAIN, etc. I'm e-mailing my GP and am basically pleading my case to him, so we'll see what he says. It just can't keep going on like this.
After 15 months sobers and a clearer mind, Im working a 4th again.
Hang in there, the miracle will come
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