<story><title>The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)</title><url>https://web.archive.org/web/20000829071343/http://www2.jsonline.com/news/state/may00/katz21052000a.asp</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>taw2212121</author><text>He has my empathy.  Never had a problem for most of my life, then got sick in a way that I was given hydrocodone for 8 months.  I took more than the label said, a lot more, and at some point a switch clicked over in my head.  After the hydrocodone was gone, I switched to alcohol only because it was easy to get.  I&amp;#x27;ve been sober a while now, but stopping the drinking was MUCH harder than stopping the hydrocodone.  Alcohol is a beast once that circuit breaker trips in your head and you start drinking large quantities daily.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s very hard to explain to someone that hasn&amp;#x27;t gone through it.  Suffice it to say that quitting isn&amp;#x27;t really about willpower.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>voicedYoda</author><text>Kudos on the quit. After my child passed away, i went through a similar spiral. It took my spouse, our community, and a new life to save me. I&amp;#x27;m not great, but doing better</text></comment>
<story><title>The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)</title><url>https://web.archive.org/web/20000829071343/http://www2.jsonline.com/news/state/may00/katz21052000a.asp</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>taw2212121</author><text>He has my empathy.  Never had a problem for most of my life, then got sick in a way that I was given hydrocodone for 8 months.  I took more than the label said, a lot more, and at some point a switch clicked over in my head.  After the hydrocodone was gone, I switched to alcohol only because it was easy to get.  I&amp;#x27;ve been sober a while now, but stopping the drinking was MUCH harder than stopping the hydrocodone.  Alcohol is a beast once that circuit breaker trips in your head and you start drinking large quantities daily.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s very hard to explain to someone that hasn&amp;#x27;t gone through it.  Suffice it to say that quitting isn&amp;#x27;t really about willpower.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chillwaves</author><text>&amp;gt; Suffice it to say that quitting isn&amp;#x27;t really about willpower.&lt;p&gt;I found this to be my experience as well, which is why I was so interested when I heard about naltrexone therapy.  More specifically, a course known as The Sinclair Method. [1]&lt;p&gt;The idea is to use the drug an hour prior to drinking (and only then, so if you abstained from drinking that day, you would abstain from naltrexone -- this is where it differs from standard naltrexone therapy that would have you take it every morning regardless of your plans to drink).  Naltrexone blocks endorphins associated with drinking and helps to reprogram your brain to no longer seek that neurochemical response.&lt;p&gt;I found it to be highly successful the first week -- I didn&amp;#x27;t even want to finish 2 drinks.  After the first week, it still worked but not as well.  And I also realized that the anticipation of drinking was almost as powerful as drinking itself, in that I would feel a &amp;quot;rush&amp;quot; even on my way to buy alcohol.&lt;p&gt;It took about 6 months of naltrexone therapy to finally quit.  The funny part is, during that time and when under emotional distress, sometimes I would drink without the medication but it still seemed effective in that I never quite got the pleasure I used to have.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m coming up on 3 months sober, but unlike past attempts to quit, I have no urge to fight and no desire to drink again (and I am going to keep it that way).&lt;p&gt;I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice, just my story.  The other interesting part to me is how rarely naltrexone is used for problem drinking (vs something like AA, which is faith based in more ways than one), and even more rarely is it deployed the way The Sinclair Method instructs (deliberately, right before drinking).&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Over time, your brain learns not to associate alcohol with pleasure, resulting in reduced cravings and improved control over alcohol use.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sinclairmethod.org&amp;#x2F;what-is-the-sinclair-method-2&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sinclairmethod.org&amp;#x2F;what-is-the-sinclair-method-2...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>